SCIENCE 
AND    EDUCATION 


ESSAYS 


BY 

THOMAS   H.    HUXLEY 


NEW    YORK 
D.   APPLETON    AND    COMPANY 

1897 


Authorized  Edition. 


On 


PREFACE 

THE  apology  offered  in  the  Preface  to  the 
volume  of  this  series  for  the  occurrence  of  repe- 
titions, is  even  more  needful  here  I  am  afraid. 
But  it  could  hardly  be  otherwise  with  speeches  and 
essays,  on  the  same  topic,  addressed  at  intervals, 
during  more  than  thirty  years,  to  widely  distant 
and  different  hearers  and  readers.  The  oldest 
piece,  that  "  On  the  Educational  Value  of  the 
Natural  History  Sciences,"  contains  some  crudities, 
which  I  repudiated  when  the  lecture  was  first 
reprinted,  more  than  twenty  years  ago;  but  it 
will  be  seen  that  much  of  what  I  have  had  to 
say,  later  on  in  life,  is  merely  a  development  of 
the  propositions  enunciated  in  this  early  and 
sadly-imperfect  piece  of  work. 

In  view  of  the  recent  attempt  to  disturb  the 
compromise    about    the    teaching     of     dogmatic 


VI  PREFACE 

theology,  solemnly  agreed  to  by  the  first  School 
Board  for  London,  the  fifteenth  Essay;  and,  more 
particularly,  the  note  on  p.  388,  may  be  found 
interesting. 

T.  H.  H. 

HODESLEA,  EASTBOURNE, 
September  4th,  1893. 


CONTENTS 


FAQK 
JOSEPH    PRIESTLEY   [1874] 1 

(An  Address  delivered  on  the  occasion  of  the 
presentation  of  a  statue  of  Priestley  to  the 
town  of  Birmingham) 


II 

ON  THE  EDUCATIONAL  VALUE  OF  THE  NATURAL  HISTORY 

SCIENCES  [1854] 38 

(An  Address  delivered  in  S.  Martin's  Hall) 
III 

EMANCIPATION — BLACK   AND   WHITE   [1865] 66 


A   LIBERAL  EDUCATION;   AND   WHERE   TO   FIND   IT   [1868]        76 

(An  Address  to  the  South  London  Working 
Men's  College) 


Vlll  CONTENTS 


PAGE 

SCIENTIFIC    EDUCATION  :     NOTES     OF    AN     AFTER-DINNER 

SPEECH     [1869] Ill 

(Liverpool  Philomatliic  Society) 
VI 

SCIENCE  AND   CULTURE   [1880] 184 

(An  Address  delivered  at  the  opening  of  Sir 
Josiah  Mason's  Science  College,  Birmingham) 

VII 

ON   SCIENCE   AND   ART   IN    RELATION  TO  EDUCATION  [1882]    160 

(An  Address  to  the  members  of  the  Liverpool 
Institution) 

VIII 

UNIVERSITIES:   ACTUAL  AND  IDEAL  [1874] 189 

(Rectorial  Address,  Aberdeen) 

IX 

ADDRESS  ON  UNIVERSITY  EDUCATION   [1876] ,     235 

(Delivered  at  the  opening  of  the  Johns  Hop- 
kins University,  Baltimore) 

X 

ON    THE   STUDY   OF   BIOLOGY   [1876] 262 

(A  Lecture  in  connection  with  the  Loan 
Collection  of  Scientific  Apparatus,  South 
Kensington  Museum) 


CONTENTS  ix 

XI 

PAGE 

ON    ELEMENTARY   INSTRUCTION    IN    PHYSIOLOGY    [1877]  .    .      294 

XII 
ON    MEDICAL    EDUCATION    [1870] 303 

(Aii  Address  to  the  students  of  the  Faculty  of 
Medicine  in  University  College,  London) 

XIII 

THE   STATE   AND   THE   MEDICAL   PROFESSION    [1884],  .     .     .     323 

XIV 

THE   CONNECTION     OP     THE     BIOLOGICAL     SCIENCES     WITH 

MEDICINE  [1881] 347 

(An    Address   to   the    International    Medical 

Congress) 

XV 

THE  SCHOOL  P,OAI:DS  :    WHAT  THEY  CAN  DO,  AND  WHAT 

THEY  MAY  DO  [1870] 374 

XVI 

TECHNICAL    EDUCATION    [1877] 404 

XVII 

ADDKESS   ON    BEHALF  OF  THE   NATIONAL  ASSOCIATION   FOR 

THE   PROMOTION    OF   TECHNICAL   EDUCATION   [1887]     .      427 


I 

JOSEPH  PRIESTLEY 

[1874] 

IF  the  man  to  perpetuate  whose  memory  we  have 
this  day  raised  a  statue  had  been  asked  on  wha.t 
part  of  his  busy  life's  work  he  set  the  highest 
value,  he  would  undoubtedly  have  pointed  to  his 
voluminous  contributions  to  theology.  In  season 
and  out  of  season,  he  was  the  steadfast  champion 
of  that  hypothesis  respecting  the  Divine  nature 
which  is  termed  Unitarianism  by  its  friends  and 
Socinianism  by  its  foes.  Regardless  of  odds,  he 
was  ready  to  do  battle  with  all  comers  in  that 
cause ;  and  if  no  adversaries  entered  the  lists,  he 
would  sally  forth  to  seek  them. 

To  this,  his  highest  ideal  of  duty,  Joseph 
Priestley  sacrificed  the  vulgar  prizes  of  life,  which, 
assuredly,  were  within  easy  reach  of  a  man  of  his 
singular  energy  and  varied  abilities.  For  this 
object  he  put  aside,  as  of  secondary  importance, 
those  scientific  investigations  which  he  loved  so 


2  JOSEPH   PRIESTLEY  I 

well,  and  in  which  he  showed  himself  so  com- 
petent to  enlarge  the  boundaries  of  natural 
knowledge  and  to  win  fame.  In  this  cause  he  not 
only  cheerfully  suffered  obloquy  from  the  bigoted 
and  the  unthinking,  and  came  within  sight  of 
martyrdom;  but  bore  with  that  which  is  much 
harder  to  be  borne  than  all  these,  the  unfeigned 
astonishment  and  hardly  disguised  contempt  of  a 
brilliant  society,  composed  of  men  whose  sympathy 
and  esteem  must  have  been  most  dear  to  him,  and 
to  whom  it  was  simply  incomprehensible  that  a 
philosopher  should  seriously  occupy  himself  with 
any  form  of  Christianity. 

It  appears  to  me  that  the  man  who,  setting 
before  himself  such  an  ideal  of  life,  acted  up  to  it 
consistently,  is  worthy  of  the  deepest  respect, 
whatever  opinion  may  be  entertained  as  to  the 
real  value  of  the  tenets  which  he  so  zealously  pro- 
pagated and  defended. 

But  I  am  sure  that  I  speak  not  only  for  myself, 
but  for  all  this  assemblage,  when  I  say  that  our 
purpose  to-day  is  to  do  honour,  not  to  Priestley,  the 
Unitarian  divine,  but  to  Priestley,  the  fearless 
defender  of  rational  freedom  in  thought  and  in 
action  :  to  Priestley,  the  philosophic  thinker ;  to 
that  Priestley  who  held  a  foremost  place  among 
"  the  swift  runners  who  hand  over  the  lamp  of 
life,"  l  and  transmit  from  one  generation  to  another 

1  "Quasi  cursores,  vital  lampada  tradunt." —  Lucn.  1)6 
Rerum  Nat.  ii.  78. 


I  JOSEPH    PRIESTLEY  3 

the  lire  kindled,  in  the  childhood  of  the  world,  at 
the  Promethean  altar  of  Science. 

The  main  incidents  of  Priestley's  life  are  so  well 
known  that  I  need  dwell  upon  them  at  no  great 
length. 

Born  in  1733,  at  Fieldhead,  near  Leeds,  and 
brought  up  among  Calvinists  of  the  straitest 
orthodoxy,  the  boy's  striking  natural  ability  led  to 
his  being  devoted  to  the  profession  of  a  minister 
of  religion;  and,  in  1752,  he  was  sent  to  the 
Dissenting  Academy  at  Daventry — an  institution 
which  authority  left  undisturbed,  though  its  ex- 
istence contravened  the  law.  The  teachers  under 
whose  instruction  and  influence  the  young  man 
came  at  Daventry,  carried  out  to  the  letter  the 
injunction  to  "  try  all  things  :  hold  fast  that  which 
is  good,"  and  encouraged  the  discussion  of  every 
imaginable  proposition  with  complete  freedom, 
the  leading  professors  taking  opposite  sides  ;  a 
discipline  which,  admirable  as  it  may  be  from  a 
purely  scientific  point  of  view,  would  seem  to  be 
calculated  to  make  acute,  rather  than  sound, 
divines.  Priestley  tells  us,  in  his  "  Autobiography/' 
that  he  generally  found  himself  on  the  unorthodox 
side :  and,  as  he  grew  older,  and  his  faculties 
attained  their  matiirity,  this  native  tendency 
towards  heterodoxy  grew  with  his  growth  and 
strengthened  with  his  strength.  He  passed  from 
Calvinism  to  Arianism  ;  and  finally,  in  middle  life, 


4  JOSEPH   PEIESTLEY  I 

landed  in  that  very  broad  form  of  Unitarianism 
by  which  his  craving  after  a  credible  and  consist- 
ent theory  of  things  was  satisfied. 

On  leaving  Daventry  Priestley  became  minister 
of  a  congregation,  first  at  Needham  Market,  and 
secondly  at  Nantwich  ;  but  whether  on  account  of 
his  heterodox  opinions,  or  of  the  stuttering  which 
impeded  his  expression  of  them  in  the  pulpit,  little 
success  attended  his  efforts  in  this  capacity.  In 
1761,  a  career  much  more  suited  to  his  abilities 
became  open  to  him.  He  was  appointed "  tutor 
in  the  languages  "  in  the  Dissenting  Academy  at 
Warrington,  in  which  capacity,  besides  giving  three 
courses  of  lectures,  he  taught  Latin,  Greek,  French, 
and  Italian,  and  read  lectures  on  the  theory  of 
language  and  universal  grammar,  on  oratory, 
philosophical  criticism,  and  civil  law.  And  it  is 
interesting  to  observe  that,  as  a  teacher,  he  en- 
couraged and  cherished  in  those  whom  he  in- 
structed the  freedom  which  he  had  enjoyed,  in  his 
own  student  days,  at  Daventry.  One  of  his  pupils 
tells  us  that, 

"At  the  conclusion  of  his  lecture,  he  always  encouraged  his 
students  to  express  their  sentiments  relative  to  the  subject  of  it, 
and  to  urge  any  objeptions  to  what  he  had  delivered,  without 
reserve.  It  pleased  him  when  any  one  commenced  such  a  con- 
versation. In  order  to  excite  the  freest  discussion,  he  occasionally 
invited  the  students  to  drink  tea  with  him,  in  order  to  canvass 
the  subjects  of  his  lectures.  I  do  not  recollect  that  he  ever 
showed  the  least  displeasure  at  the  strongest  objections  that 
were  made  to  what  he  delivered,  but  I  distinctly  remember  the 


I  JOSEPH   PRIESTLEY  5 

smile  of  approbation  with  which  he  usually  received  them  :  nor 
did  he  fail  to  point  out,  in  a  very  encouraging  manner,  the 
ingenuity  or  force  of  any  remarks  that  were  made,  when  they 
merited  these  characters.  His  object,  as  well  as  Dr.  Aikin's, 
was  to  engage  the  students  to  examine  and  decide  for 
themselves,  uninfluenced  by  the  sentiments  of  any  other 


It  would  be  difficult  to  give  a  better  description 
of  a  model  teacher  than  that  conveyed  in  these 
words. 

From  his  earliest  days,  Priestley  had  shown  a 
strong  bent  towards  the  study  of  nature ;  and  his 
brother  Timothy  tells  us  that  the  boy  put  spiders 
into  bottles,  to  see  how  long  they  would  live  in  the 
same  air — a  curious  anticipation  of  the  investi- 
gations of  his  later  years.  At  Nantwich,  where 
he  set  up  a  school,  Priestley  informs  us  that  he 
bought  an  air  pump,  an  electrical  machine,  and 
other  instruments,  in  the  use  of  which  he  in- 
structed his  scholars.  But  he  does  not  seem  to 
have  devoted  himself  seriously  to  physical  science 
until  17G6,  when  he  had  the  great  good  fortune  to 
meet  Benjamin  Franklin,  whose  friendship  he  ever 
afterwards  enjoyed.  Encouraged  by  Franklin,  he 
wrote  a  "  History  of  Electricity,"  which  was  pub- 
lished in  1767,  and  appears  to  have  met  with 
considerable  success. 

In  the  same  year,  Priestley  left  Warrington  to 
become  the  minister  of  a  congregation  at  Leeds  ; 

1  Life  and  Correspondence  of  Dr.  Priestley,  by  J.  T.  Rutt 
Vol.  I.  p.  50, 


6  JOSEPH   PRIESTLEY  I 

and,  here,  happening  to  live  next  door  to  a  public 
brewery,  as  he  says, 

"I,  at  first,  amused  myself  with  making  experiments  on  the 
fixed  air  which  I  found  ready-made  in  the  process  of  fermenta- 
tion. "When  I  removed  from  that  house  I  was  under  the 
necessity  of  making  fixed  air  for  myself  ;  and  one  experiment 
leading  to  another,  as  I  have  distinctly  and  faithfully  noted  in 
my  various  publications  on  the  subject,  I  by  degrees  contrived 
a  convenient  apparatus  for  the  purpose,  but  of  the  cheapest 
kind. 

"When  I  began  these  experiments  I  knew  very  little  of 
chemistry,  and  had,  in  a  manner,  no  idea  on  the  subject  before 
I  attended  a  course  of  chemical  lectures,  delivered  in  the 
Academy  at  Warrington,  by  Dr.  Turner  of  Liverpool.  But  I 
have  often  thought  that,  upon  the  whole,  this  circumstance 
was  no  disadvantage  to  me  ;  as,  in  this  situation,  I  was  led 
to  devise  an  apparatus  and  processes  of  my  own,  adapted 
to  my  peculiar  views ;  whereas,  if  I  had  been  previously 
accustomed  to  the  usual  chemical  processes,  I  should  not 
have  so  easily  thought  of  any  other,  and  without  new  modes  of 
operation,  I  should  hardly  have  discovered  anything  materially 
new."1 

The  first  outcome  of  Priestley's  chemical  work, 
published  in  1772,  was  of  a  very  practical  charac- 
ter. He  discovered  the  way  of  impregnating 
water  with  an  excess  of  "  fixed  air,"  or  carbonic 
acid,  and  thereby  producing  what  we  now  know 
as  "soda  water" — a  service  to  naturally,  and 
still  more  to  artificially,  thirsty  souls,  which  those 
whose  parched  throats  and  hot  heads  are  cooled 
by  morning  draughts  of  that  beverage,  cannot 
too  gratefully  acknowledge.  In  the  same  year, 
Priestley  communicated  the  extensive  series  of 
1  Autobiography,  §§  100,  101. 


I  JOSEPH  PRIESTLEY  7 

observations  which  his  industry  and  ingenuity 
had  accumulated,  in  the  course  of  four  years,  to 
the  Royal  Society,  under  the  title  of  "  Observa- 
tions on  Different  Kinds  of  Air" — a  memoir 
which  was  justly  regarded  of  so  much  merit  and 
importance,  that  the  Society  at  once  conferred 
upon  the  author  the  highest  distinction  in  their 
power,  by  awarding  him  the  Copley  Medal. 

In  1771  a  proposal  was  made  to  Priestley  to 
accompany  Captain  Cook  in  his  second  voyage  to 
the  South  Seas.  He  accepted  it,  and  his  congre- 
gation agreed  to  pay  an  assistant  to  supply  his 
place  during  his  absence.  But  the  appointment 
lay  in  the  hands  of  the  Board  of  Longitude,  of 
which  certain  clergymen  were  members ;  and 
whether  these  worthy  ecclesiastics  feared  that 
Priestley's  presence  among  the  ship's  company 
might  expose  His  Majesty's  sloop  Resolution  to 
the  fate  which  aforetime  befell  a  certain  ship  that 
went  from  Joppa  to  Tarshish ;  or  whether  they 
were  alarmed  lest  a  Socinian  should  undermine 
that  piety  which,  in  .the  days  of  Commodore 
Trunnion,  so  strikingly  characterised  sailors,  does 
not  appear;  but,  at  any  rate,  they  objected  to 
Priestley  "  on  account  of  his  religious  principles/' 
and  appointed  the  two  Forsters,  whose  "  religious 
principles,"  if  they  had  been  known  to  these  well- 
meaning  but  not  far-sighted  persons,  would 
probably  have  surprised  them. 

In  1772  another  proposal  was  made  to  Priestley. 

61 


8  JOSEPH   PRIESTLEY  I 

Lord  Shelburne,  desiring  a  "literary  companion," 
had  been  brought  into  communication  with 
Priestley  by  the  good  offices  of  a  friend  of  both, 
Dr.  Price  ;  and  offered  him  the  nominal  post  of 
librarian,  with  a  good  house  and  appointments, 
and  an  annuity  in  case  of  the  termination  of  the 
engagement.  Priestley  accepted  the  offer,  and 
remained  with  Lord  Shelburne  for  seven  years, 
sometimes  residing  at  Calne,  sometimes  travelling 
abroad  with  the  Earl. 

Why  the  connection  terminated  has  never  been 
exactly  known ;  but  it  is  certain  that  Lord 
Shelburne  behaved  with  the  utmost  consideration 
and  kindness  towards  Priestley;  that  he  fulfilled 
his  engagements  to  the  letter ;  and  that,  at  a 
later  period,  he  expressed  a  desire  that  Priestley 
should  return  to  his  old  footing  in  his  house. 
Probably  enough,  the  politician,  aspiring  to  the 
highest  offices  in  the  State,  may  have  found  the 
position  of  the  protector  of  a  man  who  was  being 
denounced  all  over  the  country  as  an  infidel  and 
an  atheist  somewhat  embarrassing.  In  fact,  a 
passage  in  Priestley's  "Autobiography"  on  the 
occasion  of  the  publication  of  his  "  Disquisitions 
relating  to  Matter  and  Spirit,"  which  took  place 
in  1777,  indicates  pretty  clearly  the  state  of  the 
case : — 

"(126)  It  being  probable  that  this  publication  would  be  un- 
popular, and  might  be  the  means  of  bringing  odium  on  my 
patron,  several  al  tempts  were  made  by  his  friends,  though  nona 


I  JOSEPH  PRIESTLEY  9 

by  himself,  to  dissuade  me  from  persisting  in  it.  But  being,  as 
I  thought,  engaged  in  the  cause  of  important  truth,  I  proceeded 
without  regard  to  any  consequences,  assuring  them  that  this 
publication  should  not  be  injurious  to  his  lordship." 

It  is  not  unreasonable  to  suppose  that  his 
lordship,  as  a  keen,  practical  man  of  the  world, 
did  not  derive  much  satisfaction  from  this  assur- 
ance. The  "  evident  marks  of  dissatisfaction " 
which  Priestley  says  he  first  perceived  in  his 
patron  in  1778,  may  well  have  arisen  from  the 
peer's  not  unnatural  uneasiness  as  to  what  his 
domesticated,  but  not  tamed,  philosopher  might 
write  next,  and  what  storm  might  thereby  be 
brought  down  on  his  own  head ;  and  it  speaks 
very  highly  for  Lord  Shelburne's  delicacy  that,  in 
the  midst  of  such  perplexities,  he  made  not  the 
least  attempt  to  interfere  with  Priestley's  freedom 
of  action.  In  1780,  however,  he  intimated  to 
Dr.  Price  that  he  should  be  glad  to  establish 
Priestley  on  his  Irish  estates  :  the  suggestion  was 
interpreted,  as  Lord  Shelburne  probably  intended 
it  should  be,  and  Priestley  left  him,  the  annuity 
of  £150  a  year,  which  had  been  promised  in  view 
of  such  a  contingency,  being  punctually  paid. 

After  leaving  Calne,  Priestley  spent  some  little 
time  in  London,  and  then,  having  settled  in  Bir- 
mingham at  the  desire  of  his  brother-in-law,  he 
was  soon  invited  to  become  the  minister  of  a  large 
congregation.  This  settlement  Priestley  con- 
sidered, at  the  time,  to  be  "  the  happiest  event  of 


10  JOSEPH   PRIESTLEY  I 

his  life."  And  well  he  might  think  so;  for  it 
gave  him  competence  and  leisure;  placed  him 
within  reach  of  the  best  makers  of  apparatus  of 
the  day ;  made  him  a  member  of  that  remarkable 
"  Lunar  Society,"  at  whose  meetings  he  could 
exchange  thoughts  with  such  men  as  Watt, 
Wedgwood,  Darwin,  and  Boulton;  and  threw 
open  to  him  the  pleasant  house  of  the  Galtons  of 
Barr,  where  these  men,  and  others  of  less  note, 
formed  a  society  of  exceptional  charm  and  intelli- 
gence.1 

But  these  halcyon  days  were  ended  by  a  bitter 
storm.  The  French  Revolution  broke  out.  An 
electric  shock  ran  through  the  nations ;  whatever 
there  was  of  corrupt  and  retrograde,  and,  at  the 
same  time,  a  great  deal  of  what  there  was  of  best 
and  noblest,  in  European  society  shuddered  at 

1  See  The  Life  of  Mary  Anne  ScMmmclpenninck."  Mrs. 
Schimmelpenninck  (nee  Galton)  remembered  Priestley  very  well, 
and  her  description  of  him  is  worth  quotation  : — "A  man  of 
admirable  simplicity,  gentleness  and  kindness  of  heart,  united 
with  great  acuteness  of  intellect.  I  can  never  forget  the  im- 
pression produced  on  me  by  the  serene  expression  of  his 
countenance.  He,  indeed,  seemed  present  with  God  by 
recollection,  and  with  man  by  cheerfulness.  I  remember  that, 
in  the  assembly  of  these  distinguished  men,  amongst  whom  Mr. 
Boulton,  by  his  noble  manner,  his  fine  countenance  (which  much 
resembled  that  of  Louis  XIV.),  and  princely  munificence,  stood 
pre-eminently  as  the  great  Mecsenas  ;  even  as  a  child,  I  used  to 
feel,  when  Dr.  Priestley  entered  after  him,  that  the  glory  of  the 
one  was  terrestrial,  that  of  the  other  celestial  ;  and  utterly  far 
as  I  am  removed  from  a  belief  in  the  sufficiency  of  Dr. 
Priestley's  theological  creed,  I  cannot  but  here  record  this 
evidence  of  the  eternal  power  of  any  portion  of  the  truth  held 
in  its  vitality." 


I  JOSEPH  PRIESTLEY  11 

the  outburst  of  long-pent-up  social  fires.  Men's 
feelings  were  excited  in  a  way  that  we,  in  this 
generation,  can  hardly  comprehend.  Party  wrath 
and  virulence  were  expressed  in  a  manner  un- 
paralleled, and  it  is  to  be  hoped  impossible,  in  our 
times ;  and  Priestley  and  his  friends  were  held  up 
to  public  scorn,  even  in  Parliament,  as  fomenters 
of  sedition.  A  "  Church-and-King "  cry  was 
raised  against  the  Liberal  Dissenters;  and,  in 
Birmingham,  it  was  intensified  and  specially 
directed  towards  Priestley  by  a  local  controversy, 
in  which  he  had  engaged  with  his  usual  vigour. 
In  1791,  the  celebration  of  the  second  anniversary 
of  the  taking  of  the  Bastille  by  a  public  dinner, 
with  which  Priestley  had  nothing  whatever  to  do, 
gave  the  signal  to  the  loyal  and  pious  mob,  who, 
unchecked,  and  indeed  to  some  extent  encouraged, 
by  those  who  were  responsible  for  order,  had  the 
town  at  their  mercy  for  three  days.  The  chapels 
and  houses  of  the  leading  Dissenters  were 
wrecked,  and  Priestley  and  his  family  had  to  fly 
for  their  lives,  leaving  library,  apparatus,  papers, 
and  all  their  possessions,  a  prey  to  the  flames. 

Priestley  never  returned  to  Birmingham.  He 
bore  the  outrages  and  losses  inflicted  upon  him 
with  extreme  patience  and  sweetness,1  and  betook 

1  Even  Mrs.  Priestley,  who  might  be  forgiven  for  regarding 
the  destroyers  of  her  household  gods  with  some  asperity, 
contents  herself,  in  writing  to  Mrs.  Barbauld,  with  the  sarcasm 
that  the  Birmingham  people  "will  scarcely  find  so  many 
respectable  characters,  a  second  time,  to  make  a  bonfire  of." 


12  JOSEPH   PRIESTLEY  I 

himself  to  London.  But  even  his  scientific  col- 
leagues gave  him  a  cold  shoulder ;  and  though  he 
was  elected  minister  of  a  congregation  at  Hackney, 
he  felt  his  position  to  be  insecure,  and  finally  de- 
termined on  emigrating  to  the  United  States.  He 
landed  in  America  in  1794 ;  lived  quietly  with  his 
sons  at  Northumberland,  in  Pennsylvania,  where 
his  posterity  still  flourish ;  and,  clear-headed  and 
busy  to  the  last,  died  on  the  6th  of  February 
1804. 

Such  were  the  conditions  under  which  Joseph 
Priestley  did  the  work  which  lay  before  him,  and 
then,  as  the  Norse  Sagas  say,  went  out  of  the 
story.  The  work  itself  was  of  the  most  varied 
kind.  No  human  interest  was  without  its  attrac- 
tion for  Priestley,  and  few  men  have  ever  had  so 
many  irons  in  the  fire  at  once ;  but,  though  he 
may  have  burned  his  fingers  a  little,  very  few 
who  have  tried  that  operation  have  burned  their 
fingers  so  little.  He  made  admirable  discoveries 
in  science ;  his  philosophical  treatises  are  still 
well  worth  reading ;  his  political  works  are  full  of 
insight  and  replete  with  the  spirit  of  freedom  ;  and 
while  all  these  sparks  flew  off  from  his  anvil,  the 
controversial  hammer  rained  a  hail  of  blows  on 
orthodox  priest  and  bishop.  While  thus  engaged, 
the  kindly,  cheerful  doctor  felt  no  more  wrath  or 
uncharitableness  towards  his  opponents  than  a 
smith  does  towards  his  iron.  But  if  the  iron 


I  JOSEPH   PRIESTLEY  13 

could  only  speak  ! — and  the  priests  and  bishops 
took  the  point  of  view  of  the  iron. 

No  doubt  what  Priestley's  friends  repeatedly 
urged  upon  him — that  he  would  have  escaped  the 
heavier  trials  of  his  life  and  done  more  for  the 
advancement  of  knowledge,  if  he  had  confined 
himself  to  his  scientific  pursuits  and  let  his  fellow- 
men  go  their  way — was  true.  But  it  seems  to 
have  been  Priestley's  feeling  that  he  was  a  man 
and  a  citizen  before  he  was  a  philosopher,  and 
that  the  duties  of  the  two  former  positions  are  at 
least  as  imperative  as  those  of  the  latter.  More- 
over, there  are  men  (and  I  think  Priestley  was 
one  of  them)  to  whom  the  satisfaction  of  throwing 
down  a  triumphant  fallacy  is  as  great  as  that 
which  attends  the  discovery  of  a  new  truth  ;  who 
feel  better  satisfied  with  the  government  of  the 
world,  when  they  have  been  helping  Providence 
by  knocking  an  imposture  on  the  head ;  and  who 
care  even  more  for  freedom  of  thought  than  for 
mere  advance  of  knowledge.  These  men  are  the 
Carnots  who  organise  victory  for  truth,  and  they 
are,  at  least,  as  important  as  the  generals  who 
visibly  fight  her  battles  in  the  field. 

Priestley's  reputation  as  a  man  of  science  rests 
upon  his  numerous  and  important  contributions  to 
the  chemistry  of  gaseous  bodies ;  and  to  form  a 
just  estimate  of  the  value  of  his  work — of  the 
extent  to  which  it  advanced  the  knowledge  of 


14  JOSEPH  PKIESTLET  I 

fact  and  the  development  of  sound  theoretical 
views — we  must  reflect  what  chemistry  was  in  the 
•  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

The  vast  science  which  now  passes  under  that 
name  had  no  existence.  Air,  water,  and  fire  were 
still  counted  among  the  elemental  bodies;  and 
though  Van  Helmont,  a  century  before,  had  dis- 
tinguished different  kinds  of  air  as  gas  ventosum 
and  gas  sylvestre,  and  Boyle  and  Hales  had  ex- 
perimentally defined  the  physical  properties  of  air, 
and  discriminated  some  of  the  various  kinds  of 
aeriform  bodies,  no  one  suspected  the  existence 
of  the  numerous  totally  distinct  gaseous  elements 
which  are  now  known,  or  dreamed  that  the  air 
we  breathe  and  the  water  we  drink  are  compounds 
of  gaseous  elements. 

But,  in  1754,  a  young  Scotch  physician,  Dr. 
Black,  made  the  first  clearing  in  this  tangled 
backwood  of  knowledge.  And  it  gives  one  a 
wonderful  impression  of  the  juvenility  of  scientific 
chemistry  to  think  that  Lord  Brougham,  whom 
so  many  of  us  recollect,  attended  Black's  lectures 
when  he  was  a  student  in  Edinburgh.  Black's 
researches  gave  the  world  the  novel  and  startling 
conception  of  a  gas  that  was  a  permanently  elastic 
fluid  like  air,  but  that  differed  from  common  air 
in  being  much  heavier,  very  poisonous,  and  in 
having  the  properties  of  an  acid,  capable  of  neutral- 
ising the  strongest  alkalies ;  and  it  took  the  world 
some  time  to  become  accustomed  to  the  notion. 


I  JOSEPH   PRIESTLEY  15 

A  dozen  years  later,  one  of  the  most  sagacious 
and  accurate  investigators  who  has  adorned  this, 
or  any  other,  country,  Henry  Cavendish,  published 
a  memoir  in  the  "Philosophical  Transactions," 
in  which  he  deals  not  only  with  the  "  fixed  air " 
(now  called  carbonic  acid  or  carbonic  anhydride)  of 
Black,  but  with  "  inflammable  air/'  or  what  we  now 
term  hydrogen. 

By  the  rigorous  application  of  weight  and 
measure  to  all  his  processes,  Cavendish  implied  the 
belief  subsequently  formulated  by  Lavoisier,  that, 
in  chemical  processes,  matter  is  neither  created 
nor  destroyed,  and  indicated  the  path  along  which 
all  future  explorers  must  travel.  Nor  did  he  him- 
self halt  until  this  path  led  him,  in  1784,  to  the 
brilliant  and  fundamental  discovery  that  water  is 
composed  of  two  gases  united  in  fixed  and  con- 
stant proportions. 

It  is  a  trying  ordeal  for  any  man  to  be  compared 
with  Black  and  Cavendish,  and  Priestley  cannot  be 
said  to  stand  on  their  level.  Nevertheless  his 
achievements  are  not  only  great  in  themselves,  but 
truly  wonderful,  if  we  consider  the  disadvantages 
under  which  he  laboured.  Without  the  careful 
scientific  training  of  Black,  without  the  leisure  and 
appliances  secured  by  the  wealth  of  Cavendish,  he 
scaled  the  walls  of  science  as  so  many  Englishmen 
have  done  before  and  since  his  day ;  and  trusting 
to  mother  wit  to  supply  the  place  of  training,  and 
to  ingenuity  to  create  apparatus  out  of  washing 


16  JOSEPH   PRIESTLEY  1 

tubs,  he  discovered  more  new  gases  than  all.  his 
predecessors  put  together  had  done.  He  laid  the 
foundations  of  gas  analysis ;  he  discovered  the 
complementary  actions  of  animal  and  vegetable 
life  upon  the  constituents  of  the  atmosphere ;  and, 
finally,  he  crowned  his  work,  this  day  one  hundred 
years  ago,  by  the 'disco  very  of  that  "  pure  dephlo- 
gisticated  air "  to  which  the  French  chemists 
subsequently  gave  the  name  of  oxygen.  Its 
importance,  as  the  constituent  of  the  atmosphere 
which  disappears  in  the  processes  of  respiration  and 
combustion,  and  is  restored  by  green  plants  growing 
in  sunshine,  was  proved  somewhat  later.  For 
these  brilliant  discoveries,  the  Eoyal  Society  elected 
.  Priestley  a  fellow  and  gave  him  their  medal,  while 
the  Academies  of  Paris  arid  St.  Petersburg  con- 
ferred their  membership  upon  him.  Edinburgh 
had  made  him  an  honorary  doctor  of  laws  at  an 
early  period  of  his  career ;  but,  I  need  hardly  add, 
that  a  man  of  Priestley's  opinions  received  no 
recognition  from  the  universities  of  his  own 
country. 

That  Priestley's  contributions  to  the  knowledge 
of  chemical  fact  were  of  the  greatest  importance, 
and  that  they  richly  deserve  all  the  praise  that  has 
been  awarded  to  them,  is  unquestionable ;  but  it 
must,  at  the  same  time,  be  admitted  that  he  had 
no  comprehension  of  the  deeper  significance  of  his 
work ;  and,  so  far  from  contributing  anything  to 
the  theory  of  the  facts  which  he  discovered,  or 


I  JOSEPH   PRIESTLEY  17 

assisting  in  their  rational  explanation,  his  influence 
to  the  end  of  his  life  was  warmly  exerted  in  favour 
of  error.  From  first  to  last,  he  was  a  stiff  adherent 
of  the  phlogiston  doctrine  which  was  prevalent 
when  his  studies  commenced  ;  and,  by  a  curious 
irony  of  fate,  the  man  who  by  the  discovery  of 
what  he  called  " dephlogisticated  air"  furnished 
the  essential  datum  for  the  true  theory  of  com- 
bustion, of  respiration,  and  of  the  composition  of 
water,  to  the  end  of  his  days  fought  against  the 
inevitable  corollaries  from  his  own  labours.  His 
last  scientific  work,  published  in  1800,  bears  the 
title,  "  The  Doctrine  of  Phlogiston  established,  and 
that  of  the  Composition  of  Water  refuted." 

When  Priestley  commenced  his  studies,  the  cur- 
rent belief  was,  that  atmospheric  air,  freed  from 
accidental  impurities,  is  a  simple  elementary  sub- 
stance, indestructible  and  unalterable,  as  water  was 
supposed  to  be.  When  a  combustible  burned,  or 
when  an  animal  breathed  in  air,  it  was  supposed 
that  a  substance,  "  phlogiston,"  the  matter  of  heat 
and  light,  passed  from  the  burning  or  breathing 
body  into  it,  and  destroyed  its  powers  of  supporting 
life  and  combustion.  Thus,  air  contained  in  a 
vessel  in  which  a  lighted  candle  had  gone  out,  or  a 
living  animal  had  breathed  until  it  could  breathe 
no  longer,  was  called  "  phlogisticated."  The  same 
result  was  supposed  to  be  brought  about  by  the 
addition  of  what  Priestley  called  "  nitrous  gas  "  to 
common  air. 


18  JOSEPH  PRIESTLEY  I 

In  the  course  of  his  researches,  Priestley  found 
that  the  quantity  of  common  air  which  can  thus 
become  "phlogisticated,"  amounts  to  about  one-fifth 
the  volume  of  the  whole  quantity  submitted  to 
experiment.  Hence  it  appeared  that  common  air 
consists,  to  the  extent  of  four-fifths  of  its  volume, 
of  air  which  is  already  "  phlogisticated  "  ;  while  the 
other  fifth  is  free  from  phlogiston,  or  "  dephlogis- 
ticated."  On  the  other  hand,  Priestley  found  that 
air  "  phlogisticated  "  by  combustion  or  respiration 
could  be  "  dephlogisticated,"  or  have  the  properties 
of  pure  common  air  restored  to  it,  by  the  action  of 
green  plants  in  sunshine.  The  question,  therefore, 
would  naturally  arise — as  common  air  can  be 
wholly  phlogisticated  by  combustion,  and  con- 
verted into  a  substance  which  will  no  longer 
support  combustion,  is  it  possible  to  get  air  that 
shall  be  less  phlogisticated  than  common  air,  and 
consequently  support  combustion  better  than  com- 
mon air  does  ? 

Now,  Priestley  says  that,  in  1774,  the  possi- 
bility of  obtaining  air  less  phlogisticated  than 
common  air  had  not  occurred  to  him.1  But  in 
pursuing  his  experiments  on  the  evolution  of  air 
from  various  bodies  by  means  of  heat,  it  happened 
that,  on  the  1st  of  August  1774,  he  threw  the  heat 
of  the  sun,  by  means  of  a  large  burning  glass 
which  he  had  recently  obtained,  upon  a  substance 

1  Experiments  and  Observations  on  Different  Kinds  of  Air \ 
vol.  ii.  p.  31. 


f  JOSEPH  PRIESTLEY  19 

which  was  then  called  mercurius  calcinatus  per  se, 
and  which  is  commonly  known  as  red  precipitate. 

"I  presently  found  that,  by  means  of  this  lens,  air  was 
expelled  from  it  very  readily.  Having  got  about  three  or  four 
times  as  much  as  the  bulk  of  my  materials,  I  admitted  water 
to  it,  and  found  that  it  was  not  imbibed  by  it.  But  what 
surprised  me  more  than  I  can  well  express,  was  that  a  candle 
burned  in  this  air  with  a  remarkably  vigorous  flame,  very  much 
like  that  enlarged  flame  with  which  a  candle  burns  in  nitrous 
air,  exposed  to  iron  or  lime  of  sulphur  ;  but  as  I  had  got 
nothing  like  this  remarkable  appearance  from  any  kind  of  air 
besides  this  particular  modification  of  nitrous  air,  and  I  knew 
no  nitrous  acid  was  used  in  the  preparation  of  mercurius  cal- 
cinatus, I  was  utterly  at  a  loss  how  to  account  for  it. 

"  In  this  case  also,  though  I  did  not  give  sufficient  attention 
to  the  circumstance  at  that  time,  the  flame  of  the  candle, 
besides  being  larger,  burned  with  more  splendour  and  heat  than 
in  that  species  of  nitrous  air ;  and  a  piece  of  red-hot  wood 
sparkled  in  it,  exactly  like  paper  dipped  in  a  solution  of  nitre, 
and  it  consumed  very  fast — an  experiment  which  I  had  never 
thought  of  trying  with  nitrous  air."  L 

Priestley  obtained  the  same  sort  of  air  from  red 
lead,  but,  as  he  says  himself,  he  remained  in 
ignorance  of  the  properties  of  this  new  kind  of  air 
for  seven  months,  or  until  March  1775,  when  he 
found  that  the  new  air  behaved  with  "nitrous 
gas  "  in  the  same  way  as  the  dephlogisticated  part 
of  common  air  does  ; 2  but  that,  instead  of  being 
diminished  to  four-fifths,  it  almost  completely 
vanished,  and,  therefore,  showed  itself  to  be  "  be- 
tween five  and  six  times  as  good  as  the  best 

1  Experiments  and  Observations  on  Different  Kinds  of  Air t 
vol.  ii.  pp.  34,  35. 
1  Ibid.  vol.  i.  p.  40. 


20  JOSEPH   PRIESTLEY  1 

common  air  I  have  ever  met  with."  l  As  this  new 
air  thus  appeared  to  be  completely  free  from 
phlogiston,  Priestley  called  it  "  dephlogisticated 
air." 

What  was  the  nature  of  this  air  ?  Priestley 
found  that  the  same  kind  of  air  was  to  be  obtained 
by  moistening  with  the  spirit  of  nitre  (which  he 
terms  nitrous  acid)  any  kind  of  earth  that  is  free 
from  phlogiston,  and  applying  heat ;  and  con- 
sequently he  says :  "  There  remained  no  doubt 
on  my  mind  but  that  the  atmospherical  air,  or 
the  thing  that  we  breathe,  consists  of  the  nitrous 
acid  and  earth,  with  so  much  phlogiston  as  is 
necessary  to  its  elasticity,  and  likewise  so  much 
more  as  is  required  to  bring  it  from  its  state  of 
perfect  purity  to  the  mean  condition  in  which  we 
find  it."  2 

Priestley's  view,  in  fact,  is  that  atmospheric  air 
is  a  kind  of  saltpetre,  in  which  the  potash  is  re- 
placed by  some  unknown  earth.  And  in  speculat- 
ing on  the  manner  in  which  saltpetre  is  formed,  he 
enunciates  the  hypothesis,  "  that  nitre  is  formed 
by  a  real  decomposition  of  the  air  itself,  the  lases 
that  are  presented  to  it  having,  in  such  circum- 
stances, a  nearer  affinity  with  the  spirit  of  nitre 
than  that  kind  of  earth  with  which  it  is  united  in 
the  atmosphere."  8 

1  Experiments  and  Observations  on  Different  Kinds  of  Air% 
vol.  ii.  p.  48.  2  Ibid.  p.  55. 

8  Ibid.  p.  60.     The  italics  are  Priestley's  own. 


I  JOSEPH   PRIESTLEY  21. 

It  would  have  been  hard  for  the  most  ingenious 
person  to  have  wandered  farther  from  the  truth 
than  Priestley  does  in  this  hypothesis  ;  and,  though 
Lavoisier  undoubtedly  treated  Priestley  very  ill, 
and  pretended  to  have  discovered  dephlogisticated 
air,  or  oxygen,  as  he  called  it,  independently,  we 
can  almost  forgive  him  when  we  reflect  how 
different  were  the  ideas  which  the  great  French 
chemist  attached  to  the  body  which  Priestley 
discovered. 

They  are  like  two  navigators  of  whom  the  first 
sees  a  new  country,  but  takes  clouds  for  moun- 
tains and  mirage  for  lowlands ;  while  the  second 
determines  its  length  and  breadth,  and  lays  down 
on  a  chart  its  exact  place,  so  that,  thenceforth,  it 
serves  as  a  guide  to  his  successors,  and  becomes 
a  secure  outpost  whence  new  explorations  may  be 
pushed. 

Nevertheless,  as  Priestley  himself  somewhere 
remarks,  the  first  object  of  physical  science  is  to 
ascertain  facts,  and  the  service  which  he  rendered 
to  chemistry  by  the  definite  establishment  of  a 
large  number  of  new  and  fundamentally  important 
facts,  is  such  as  to  entitle  him  to  a  very  high  place 
among  the  fathers  of  chemical  science. 

It  is  difficult  to  say  whether  Priestley's  philo- 
sophical, political,  or  theological  views  were 
most  responsible  for  the  bitter  hatred  which 
was  borne  to  him  bv  a  large  body  of  his  country- 


22  JOSEPH  PRIESTLEY  I 

men,1  and  which  found  its  expression  in  the 
malignant  insinuations  in  which  Burke,  to  his 
everlasting  shame,  indulged  in  the  House  of 
Commons. 

Without  containing  much  that  will  be  new  to 
the  readers  of  Hobbs,  Spinoza,  Collins,  Hume,  and 
Hartley,  and,  indeed,  while  making  no  pretensions 
to  originality,  Priestley's  "  Disquisitions  relating 
to  Matter  and  Spirit/'  and  his  "  Doctrine  of  Philo- 
sophical Necessity  Illustrated,"  are  among  the 
most  powerful,  clear,  and  unflinching  expositions 
of  materialism  and  necessarianism  which  exist  in 
the  English  language,  and  are  still  well  worth 
reading. 

Priestley  denied  the  freedom  of  the  will  in  the 
sense  of  its  self-determination;  he  denied  the 
existence  of  a  soul  distinct  from  the  body  ;  and  as 
a  natural  consequence,  he  denied  the  natural  im- 
mortality of  man. 

In  relation  to  these  matters  English  opinion,  a 
century  ago,  was  very  much  what  it  is  now. 

1  "  In  all  the  newspapers  and  most  of  the  periodical  publica- 
tions I  was  represented  as  an  unbeliever  in  Revelation,  and  no 
better  than  an  atheist." — Autobiography -,  Rutt,  vol  i.  p.  124. 
''On  the  walls  of  houses,  etc.,  and  especially  where  I  usually 
went,  were  to  be  seen,  in  large  characters,  4  MADAN  FOR  EVER  ; 
DAMN  PRIESTLEY  ;  NO  PRESBYTERIANISM  ;  DAMN  THE  PRES- 
BYTERIANS,' etc.,  etc.  ;  and,  at  one  time,  I  was  followed  by  a 
number  of  boys,  who  left  their  play,  repeating  what  they  had 
seen  on  the  walls,  and  shouting  out,  *  Damn  Priestley ;  damn 
him,  damn  him,  for  ever,  for  ever,'  etc.,  etc.  This  was  no 
doubt  a  lesson  which  they  had  been  taught  by  their  parents, 
and  what  they,  I  fear,  had  learned  from  their  superiors."— 
Appeal  to  the  Public  on,  the  Subject  of  the  Riots  at  Birmingham. 


I  JOSEPH   PRIESTLEY  23 

A  man  may  be  a  necessarian  without  incurring 
graver  reproach  than  that  implied  in  being  called 
a  gloomy  fanatic,  necessarianism,  though  very 
shocking,  having  a  note  of  Calvanistic  orthodoxy ; 
Lut,  if  a  man  is  a  materialist ;  or,  if  good  authori- 
ties say  he  is  and  must  be  so,  in  spite  of  his 
assertion  to  the  contrary ;  or,  if  he  acknowledge 
himself  unable  to  see  good  reasons  for  believing  in 
the  natural  immortality  of  man,  respectable  folks 
look  upon  him  as  an  unsafe  neighbour  of  a  cash- 
box,  as  an  actual  or  potential  sensualist,  the  more 
virtuous  in  outward  seeming,  the  more  certainly 
loaded  with  secret  "  grave  personal  sins." 

Nevertheless,  it  is  as  certain  as  anything  can  be, 
that  Joseph  Priestley  was  no  gloomy  fanatic,  but 
as  cheerful  and  kindly  a  soul  as  ever  breathed,  the 
idol  of  children  ;  a  man  who  was  hated  only  by 
those  who  did  not  know  him,  and  who  charmed 
away  the  bitterest  prejudices  in  personal  inter- 
course ;  a  man  who  never  lost  a  friend,  and  the 
best  testimony  to  whose  worth  is  the  generous 
and  tender  warmth  with  which  his  many  friends 
vied  with  one  another  in  rendering  him  substan- 
tial help,  in  all  the  crises  of  his  career. 

The  unspotted  purity  of  Priestley's  life,  the 
strictness  of  his  performance  of  every  duty,  his 
transparent  sincerity,  the  unostentatious  and  deep- 
seated  piety  which  breathes  through  all  his  corre- 
spondence, are  in  themselves  a  sufficient  refutation 
of  the  hypothesis,  invented  by  bigots  to  cover 

62 


24  JOSEPH   PRIESTLEY  I 

uncharitableness,  that  such  opinions  as  his  must 
arise  from  moral  defects.  And  his  statue  will  do 
as  good  service  as  the  brazen  image  that  was  set 
upon  a  pole  before  the  Israelites,  if  those  who 
have  been  bitten  by  the  fiery  serpents  of  sectarian 
hatred,  which  still  haunt  this  wilderness  of  a 
world,  are  made  whole  by  looking  upon  the  image 
of  a  heretic  who  was  yet  a  saint. 

Though  Priestley  did  not  believe  in  the  natural 
immortality  of  man,  he  held  with  an  almost  na'ive 
realism  that  man  would  be  raised  from  the  dead 
by  a  direct  exertion  of  the  power  of  God,  and 
thenceforward  be  immortal.  And  it  may  be  as 
well  for  those  who  may  be  shocked  by  this  doc- 
trine to  know  that  views,  substantially  identical 
with  Priestley's,  have  been  advocated,  since  his 
time,  by  two  prelates  of  the  Anglican  Church  :  by 
Dr.  Whately,  Archbishop  of  Dublin,  in  his  well- 
known  "  Essays  "; l  and  by  Dr.  Courtenay,  Bishop 
of  Kingston  in  Jamaica,  the  first  edition  of  whose 
remarkable  book  "  On  the  Future  States,"  dedi- 
cated to  Archbishop  Whately,  was  published 
in  1843  and  the  second  in  1857.  According  to 
Bishop  Courtenay, 

"  The  death,  of  the  body  will  cause  a  cessation  of  all  the 
activity  of  the  mind  by  way  of  natural  consequence  ;  to  continue 
for  ever  UNLESS  the  Creator  should  interfere." 


1  First  Series.     On  Some  of  the  Peculiarities  of  the  Christian 
Religion.    Essay  L     "Revelation  of  a  Future  State." 


JOSEPH  PRIESTLEY  25 


And  again  : — 


"  The  natural  end  of  human  existence,  is  the  '  first  death, 
the  dreamless  slumber  of  the  grave,  wherein  man  lies  spell- 
bound, soul  and  body,  under  the  dominion  of  sin  and  death — 
that  whatever  modes  of  conscious  existence,  whatever  future 
states  of  *  life  or  of  *  torment f  beyond  Hades  are  reserved  for 
man,  are  results  of  our  blessed  Lord's  victory  over  sin  and 
death  ;  that  the  resurrection  of  the  dead  must  be  preliminary  to 
their  entrance  into  either  of  the  future  states,  and  that  the  nature 
and  even  existence  of  these  states,  and  even  the  mere  fact  that 
there  is  a  futurity  of  consciousness,  can  be  known  only  through 
God's  revelation  of  Himself  in  the  Person  and  the  Gospel  of  His 
Son."— P.  389. 

And  now  hear  Priestley  : — 

"  Man,  according  to  this  system  (of  materialism),  is  no  more 
than  we  now  see  of  him.  His  being  commences  at  the  time  of  his- 
conception,  or  perhaps  at  an  earlier  period.  The  corporeal  and 
mental  faculties,  in  being  in  the  same  substance,  grow,  ripen, 
and  decay  together ;  and  whenever  the  system  is  dissolved  it 
continues  in  a  state  of  dissolution  till  it  shall  please  that 
Almighty  Being  who  called  it  into  existence  to  restore  it  to  life 
again." — "  Matter  and  Spirit,"  p.  49. 

And  again  : — 

"The  doctrine  of  the  Scripture  is,  that  God  made  man  of  the 
dust  ot  the  ground,  and  by  simply  animating  this  organised 
matter,  made  man  that  living  percipient  and  intelligent  being 
that  he  is.  According  to  Revelation,  death  is  a  state  of  rest 
and  insensibility,  and  our  only  though  sure  hope  of  a  future 
life  is  founded  on  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  of  the  whole 
man  at  some  distant  period ;  this  assurance  being  sufficiently 
confirmed  to  us  both  by  the  evident  tokens  of  a  Divine  com- 
mission attending  the  persons  who  delivered  the  doctrine,  and 
especially  by  the  actual  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ,  which  is 
more  authentically  attested  than  any  other  fact  in  history."-* 
Ibid.,  p.  247. 


26  JOSEPH   PRIESTLEY  I 

We  all  know  that  "  a  saint  in  crape  is  twice  a 
saint  in  lawn  ; "  but  it  is  not  yet  admitted  that  the 
views  which  are  consistent  with  such  saintliness  in 
lawn,  become  diabolical  when  held  by  a  mere  dis- 
senter.1 

I  am  not  here  either  to  defend  or  to  attack 
Priestley's  philosophical  views,  and  I  cannot  say 
that  I  am  personally  disposed  to  attach  much 
value  to  episcopal  authority  in  philosophical  ques- 
tions ;  but  it  seems  right  to  call  attention  to  the 
fact,  that  those  of  Priestley's  opinions  which  have 
brought  most  odium  upon  him  have  been  openly 
promulgated,  without  challenge,  by  persons  occu- 
pying the  highest  positions  in  the  State  Church. 

I  must  confess  that  what  interests  me  most 
about  Priestley's  materialism,  is  the  evidence  that 
he  saw  dimly  the  seed  of  destruction  which  such 
materialism  carries  within  its  own  bosom.  In  the 
course  of  his  reading  for  his  "  History  of  Dis- 
coveries relating  to  Vision,  Light,  and  Colours/' 
he  had  come  upon  the  speculations  of  Boscovich 

1  "Not  only  is  Priestley  at  one  with  Bishop  Courtenay  in  this 
matter,  but  with  Hartley  and  Bonnet,  both  of  them  stout  cham- 
pions of  Christianity.  Moreover,  Archbishop  Whately's  essay 
is  little  better  than  an  expansion  of  the  first  paragraph  of 
Hume's  famous  essay  on  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul : — "By 
the  mere  light  of  reason  it  seems  difficult  to  prove  the  immor- 
tality of  the  soul ;  the  arguments  for  it  are  commonly  derived 
either  from  metaphysical  topics,  or  moral,  or  physical.  But  it 
is  in  reality  the  Gospel,  and  the  Gospel  alone,  that  has  brought 
life  and  immortality  to  light."  It  is  impossible  to  imagine  that 
a  man  of  Whately's  tastes  and  acquirements  had  not  read  Hume 
ar  Hartley,  though  he  refers  to  neither. 


j  JOSEPH  PRIESTLEY  27 

and  Michell,  and  had  been  led  to  admit  the  suffi- 
ciently obvious  truth  that  our  knowledge  of  matter 
is  a  knowledge  of  its  properties ;  and  that  of  its 
substance — if  it  have  a  substance — we  know  no- 
thing. And  this  led  to  the  further  admission  that, 
so  far  as  we  can  know,  there  may  be  no  difference 
between  the  substance  of  matter  and  the  substance 
of  spirit  ("  Disquisitions/'  p.  16).  A  step  farther 
would  have  shown  Priestley  that  his  materialism 
was,  essentially,  very  little  different  from  the 
Idealism  of  his  contemporary,  the  Bishop  of  Gloyne. 

As  Priestley's  philosophy  is  mainly  a  clear  state- 
ment of  the  views  of  the  deeper  thinkers  of  his  day, 
so  are  his  political  conceptions  based  upon  those  of 
Locke.  Locke's  aphorism  that  "  the  end  of  govern- 
ment is  the  good  of  mankind,"  is  thus  expanded  by 
Priestley : — 

"  It  must  necessarily  be  understood,  therefore,  whether  it  be 
expressed  or  not,  that  all  people  live  in  society  for  their  mutual 
advantage  ;  so  that  the  good  and  happiness  of  the  members, 
that  is,  of  the  majority  of  the  members,  of  any  state,  is  the 
great  standard  by  which  everything  relating  to  that  state  must 
finally  be  determined. "  l 

The  little  sentence  here  interpolated,  "  that  is, 
of  the  majority  of  the  members  of  any  state,"  ap- 
pears to  be  that  passage  which  suggested  to 
Bentham,  according  to  his  own  acknowledgment, 
the  famous  "  greatest  happiness  "  formula,  which 

1  Essay  on  the  First  Principles  of  Government.  Second 
edition,  1771,  p.  13. 


28  JOSEPH   PRIESTLEY  I 

by  substituting  "  happiness  "  for  "  good/'  has  con- 
verted a  noble  into  an  ignoble  principle.  But  I  do 
not  call  to  mind  that  there  is  any  utterance  in 
Locke  quite  so  outspoken  as  the  following  passage 
in  the  "  Essay  on  the  First  Principles  of  Govern- 
ment." After  laying  down  as  "  a  fundamental 
maxim  in  all  Governments/'  the  proposition  that 
"  kings,  senators,  and  nobles  "  are  "  the  servants 
of  the  public/'  Priestley  goes  on  to  say  : — 

"  But  in  the  largest  states,  if  the  abuses  of  the  government 
should  at  any  time  be  great  and  manifest  ;  if  the  servants  of 
the  people,  forgetting  their  masters  and  their  masters'  interest, 
should  pursue  a  separate  one  of  their  own  ;  if,  instead  of  con- 
sidering that  they  are  made  for  the  people,  they  should  consider 
the  people  as  made  for  them  ;  if  the  oppressions  and  violation 
of  right  should  be  great,  flagrant,  and  universally  resented  ;  if 
the  tyrannical  governors  should  have  no  friends  but  a  few 
sycophants,  who  had  long  preyed  upon  the  vitals  of  their  fellow- 
citizens,  and  who  might  be  expected  to  desert  a  government 
whenever  their  interests  should  be  detached  from  it :  if,  in 
consequence  of  these  circumstances,  it  should  become  manifest 
that  the  risk  which  would  be  run  in  attempting  a  revolution 
would  be  trifling,  and  the  evils  which  might  be  apprehended 
from  it  were  far  less  than  those  which  were  actually  suffered 
and  which  were  daily  increasing  ;  in  the  name  of  God,  I  ask, 
what  principles  are  those  which  ought  to  restrain  an  injured  and 
insulted  people  from  asserting  their  natural  rights,  and  from 
changing  or  even  punishing  their  governors — that  is,  their 
servants — who  had  abused  their  trust,  or  from  altering  the 
whole  form  of  their  government,  if  it  appeared  to  be  of  a  struc- 
ture so  liable  to  abuse  ? " 

As  a  Dissenter,  subject  to  the  operation  of  the 
Corporation  and  Test  Acts,  and  as  a  Unitarian 
excluded  from  the  benefit  of  the  Toleration  Act, 


I  JOSEPH   PRIESTLEY  29 

it  is  not  surprising  to  find  that  Priestley  had  very 
definite  opinions  about  Ecclesiastical  Establish- 
ments ;  the  only  wonder  is  that  these  opinions 
were  so  moderate  as  the  following  passages  show 
them  to  have  been : — 

"  Ecclesiastical  authority  may  have  been  necessary  in  the 
infant  state  of  society,  and,  for  the  same  reason,  it  may  perhaps 
continue  to  be,  in  some  degree,  necessary  as  long  as  society  is 
imperfect ;  and  therefore  may  not  be  entirely  abolished  till  civil 
governments  have  arrived  at  a  much  greater  degree  of  perfection. 
If,  therefore,  I  were  asked  whether  I  should  approve  of  the 
immediate  dissolution  of  all  the  ecclesiastical  establishments  in 
Europe,  I  should  answer,  No.  .  .  .  Let  experiment  be  first 
made  of  alterations,  or,  which  is  the  same  thing,  of  better  estab- 
lishments than  the  present.  Let  them  be  reformed  in  many 
essential  articles,  and  then  not  thrown  aside  entirely  till  it  be 
found  by  experience  that  no  good  can  be  made  of  them." 

Priestley  goes  on  to  suggest  four  such  reforms 
of  a  capital  nature  : — 

"  1.  Let  the  Articles  of  Faith  to  be  subscribed  by  candidates 
for  the  ministry  be  greatly  reduced.  In  the  formulary  of  the 
Church  of  England,  might  not  thirty-eight  out  of  the  thirty  - 
nine  be  very  well  spared  ?  It  is  a  reproach  to  any  Christian 
establishment  if  every  man  cannot  claim  the  benefit  of  it  who 
can  say  that  he  believes  in  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ  as  it  is 
set  forth  in  the  New  Testament.  You  say  the  terms  are  so 
general  that  even  Deists  would  quibble  and  insinuate  them- 
selves. I  answer  that  all  the  articles  which  are  subscribed  at 
present  by  no  means  exclude  Deists  who  will  prevaricate ;  and 
upon  this  scheme  you  would  at  least  exclude  fewer  honest 


1  "  Utility  of  Establishments,"  in  Essay  on  First  Principles  tf 
Government,  p.  198,  1771. 


SO  JOSEPH  PRIESTLEY  I 

The  second  reform  suggested  is  the  equalisa- 
tion, in  proportion  to  work  done,  of  the  stipends 
of  the  clergy;  the  third,  the  exclusion  of  the 
Bishops  from  Parliament ;  and  the  fourth,  com- 
plete toleration,  so  that  every  man  may  enjoy  the 
rights  of  a  citizen,  and  be  qualified  to  serve  his 
country,  whether  he  belong  to  the  Established 
Church  or  not. 

Opinions  such  as  those  I  have  quoted,  respecting 
the  duties  and  the  responsibilities  of  governors, 
are  the  commonplaces  of  modern  Liberalism ; 
and  Priestley's  views  on  Ecclesiastical  Establish- 
ments would,  I  fear,  meet  with  but  a  cool  re- 
ception, as  altogether  too  conservative,  from  a 
large  proportion  of  the  lineal  descendants  of  the 
people  who  taught  their  children  to  cry  "  Damn 
Priestley ; "  and  with  that  love  for  the  practical 
application  of  science  which  is  the  source  of  the 
greatness  of  Birmingham,  tried  to  set  fire  to  the 
doctor's  house  with  sparks  from  his  own  electrical 
machine ;  thereby  giving  the  man  they  called  an 
incendiary  and  raiser  of  sedition  against  Church 
and  King,  an  appropriately  experimental  illustra- 
tion of  the  nature  of  arson  and  riot. 

If  I  have  succeeded  in  putting  before  you  the 
main  features  of  Priestley's  work,  its  value  will 
become  apparent  when  we  compare  the  condition 
of  the  English  nation,  as  he  knew  it,  with  its 
present  state. 


I  JOSEPH  PRIESTLEY  31 

The  fact  that  France  has  been  for  eighty-five 
years  trying,  without  much  success,  to  right 
herself  after  the  great  storm  of  the  Revolution, 
is  not  unfrequently  cited  among  us  as  an  indi- 
cation of  some  inherent  incapacity  for  self- 
government  among  the  French  people.  I  think, 
however,  that  Englishmen  who  argue  thus,  forget 
that,  from  the  meeting  of  the  Long  Parliament  in 
1640,  to  the  last  Stuart  rebellion  in  1745,  is  a 
hundred  and  five  years,  and  that,  in  the  middle  of 
the  last  century,  we  had  but  just  safely  freed 
ourselves  from  our  Bourbons  and  all  that  they 
represented.  The  corruption  of  our  state  was  as 
bad  as  that  of  the  Second  Empire.  Bribery  was 
the  instrument  of  government,  and  peculation  its 
reward.  Four-fifths  of  the  seats  in  the  House  of 
Commons  were  more  or  less  openly  dealt  with  as 
property.  A  minister  had  to  consider  the  state 
of  the  vote  market,  and  the  sovereign  secured 
a  sufficiency  of  "king's  friends"  by  payments 
allotted  with  retail,  rather  than  royal,  sagacity. 

Barefaced  and  brutal  immorality  and  intem- 
perance pervaded  the  land,  from  the  highest  to 
the  lowest  classes  of  society.  The  Established 
Church  was  torpid,  as  far  as  it  was  not  a  scandal ; 
but  those  who  dissented  from  it  came  within  the 
meshes  of  the  Act  of  Uniformity,  the  Test  Act, 
and  the  Corporation  Act.  By  law,  such  a  man  as 
Priestley,  being  a  Unitarian,  could  neither  teach 
uor  preach,  and  was  liable  to  ruinous  fines  and 


32  JOSEPH   PRIESTLEY  I 

long  imprisonment.1  In  those  days  the  guns 
that  were  pointed  by  the  Church  against  the 
Dissenters  were  shotted.  The  law  was  a  cesspool 
of  iniquity  and  cruelty.  Adam  Smith  was  a  new 
prophet  whom  few  regarded,  and  commerce  was 
hampered  by  idiotic  impediments,  and  ruined 
by  still  more  absurd  help,  on  the  part  of 
government. 

Birmingham,  though  already  the  centre  of  a 
considerable  industry,  was  a  mere  village  as 
compared  with  its  present  extent.  People  who 
travelled  went  about  armed,  by  reason  of  the 
abundance  of  highwaymen  and  the  paucity  and 
inefficiency  of  the  police.  Stage  coaches  had 
not  reached  Birmingham,  and  it  took  three  days 
to  get  to  London.  Even  canals  were  a  recent 
and  much  opposed  invention. 

Newton  had  laid  the  foundation  of  a  mechanical 
conception  of  the  physical  universe :  Hartley, 
putting  a  modern  face  upon  ancient  materialism, 
had  extended  that  mechanical  conception  to  psy- 
chology; Linnaeus  and  Haller  were  beginning  to 
introduce  method  and  order  into  the  chaotic 
acccumulation  of  biological  facts.  But  those 
parts  of  physical  science  which  deal  with  heat, 
electricity,  and  magnetism,  and  above  all, 
chemistry,  in  the  modern  sense,  can  hardly 
be  said  to  have  had  an  existence.  No  one 

1  In  1732  Doddridge  was  cited  for   teaching   without  the 
Bishop's  leave,  at  Northampton. 


I  JOSEPH   PRIESTLEY  33 

knew  that  two  of  the  old  elemental  bodies,  air 
and  water,  are  compounds,  and  that  a  third,  fire, 
is  not  a  substance  but  a  motion.  The  great 
industries  that  have  grown  out  of  the  applica- 
tions of  modern  scientific  discoveries  had  no 
existence,  and  the  man  who  should  have  foretold 
their  coming  into  being  in  the  days  of  his  son, 
would  have  been  regarded  as  a  mad  enthusiast. 

In  common  with  many  other  excellent  persons, 
Priestley  believed  that  man  is  capable  of  reaching, 
and  will  eventually  attain,  perfection.  If  the 
temperature  of  space  presented  no  obstacle,  I 
should  be  glad  to  entertain  the  same  idea ;  but 
judging  from  the  past  progress  of  our  species,  I 
am  afraid  that  the  globe  will  have  cooled  down 
so  far,  before  the  advent  of  this  natural  millen- 
nium, that  we  shall  be,  at  best,  perfected  Esqui- 
maux. For  all  practical  purposes,  however,  it  is 
enough  that  man  may  visibly  improve  his  condi- 
tion in  the  course  of  a  century  or  so.  And,  if  the 
picture  of  the  state  of  things  in  Priestley's  time, 
which  I  have  just  drawn,  have  any  pretence  to 
accuracy,  I  think  it  must  be  admitted  that  there 
has  been  a  considerable  change  for  the  better. 

I  need  not  advert  to  the  well-worn  topic  of 
material  advancement,  in  a  place  in  which  the 
very  stones  testify  to  that  progress — in  the  town 
of  Watt  and  of  Boulton.  I  will  only  remark,  in 
passing,  that  material  advancement  has  its  share 
in  moral  and  intellectual  progress.  Becky  Sharp's 


34  JOSEPH   PRIESTLEY  I 

acute  remark  that  it  is  not  difficult  to  be  virtuous 
on  ten  thousand  a  year,  has  its  application  to 
nations ;  and  it  is  futile  to  expect  a  hungry  and 
squalid  population  to  be  anything  but  violent  and 
gross.  But  as  regards  other  than  material 
welfare,  although  perfection  is  not  yet  in  sight — 
even  from  the  mast-head — it  is  surely  true  that 
things  are  much  better  than  they  were. 

Take  the  upper  and  middle  classes  as  a  whole, 
and  it  may  be  said  that  open  immorality  and 
gross  intemperance  have  vanished.  Four  and  six 
bottle  men  are  as  extinct  as  the  dodo.  Women 
of  good  repute  do  not  gamble,  and  talk  modelled 
upon  Dean  Swift's  "Art  of  Polite  Conversation" 
would  be  tolerated  in  no  decent  kitchen. 

Members  of  the  legislature  are  not  to  be 
bought ;  and  constituents  are  awakening  to  the 
fact  that  votes  must  not  be  sold — even  for  such 
trifles  as  rabbits  and  tea  and  cake.  Political 
power  has  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  masses  of 
the  people.  Those  whom  Priestley  calls  their 
servants  have  recognised  their  position,  and  have 
requested  the  master  to  be  so  good  as  to  go  to 
school  and  fit  himself  for  the  administration  of  his 
property.  In  ordinary  life,  no  civil  disability 
attaches  to  any  one  on  theological  grounds,  and 
high  offices  of  the  state  are  open  to  Papist,  Jew, 
and  Secularist. 

Whatever  men's  opinions  as  to  the  policy  of 
Establishment,  no  one  can  hesitate  to  admit  that 


I  JOSEPH   PRIESTLEY  35 

the  clergy  of  the  Church  are  men  of  pure  life 
and  conversation,  zealous  in  the  discharge  of  their 
duties  ;  and  at  present,  apparently,  more  bent  on 
prosecuting  one  another  than  on  meddling  with 
Dissenters.  Theology  itself  has  broadened  so 
much,  that  Anglican  divines  put  forward  doctrines 
more  liberal  than  those  of  Priestley ;  and,  in  our 
state-supported  churches,  one  listener  may  hear  a 
sermon  to  which  Bossuet  might  have  given  his 
approbation,  while  another  may  hear  a  discourse 
in  which  Socrates  would  find  nothing  new. 

But  great  as  these  changes  may  be,  they  sink 
into  insignificance  beside  the  progress  of  physical 
science,  whether  we  consider  the  improvement  of 
methods  of  investigation,  or  the  increase  in  bulk 
of  solid  knowledge.  Consider  that  the  labours  of 
Laplace,  of  Young,  of  Davy,  and  of  Faraday ;  of 
Cuvier,  of  Lamarck,  and  of  Robert  Brown;  of 
Von  Baer,  and  of  Schwann ;  of  Smith  and  of 
Button,  have  all  been  carried  on  since  Priestley 
discovered  oxygen ;  and  consider  that  they  are 
now  things  of  the  past,  concealed  by  the  industry 
of  those  who  have  built  upon  them,  as  the  first 
founders  of  a  coral  reef  are  hidden  beneath  the 
life's  work  of  their  successors ;  consider  that  the 
methods  of  physical  science  are  slowly  spreading 
into  all  investigations,  and  that  proofs  as  valid  as 
those  required  by  her  canons  of  investigation  are 
being  demanded  of  all  doctrines  which-  ask  for 
ineu'a  assent ;  and  you  will  have  a  faint  image  of 


36  JOSEPH   PRIESTLEY  I 

the  astounding  difference  in  this  respect  between 
the  nineteenth  century  and  the  eighteenth. 

If  we  ask  what  is  the  deeper  meaning  of  all 
these  vast  changes,  I  think  there  can  be  but  one 
reply.  They  mean  that  reason  has  asserted  and 
exercised  her  primacy  over  all  provinces  of  human 
activity :  that  ecclesiastical  authority  has  been 
relegated  to  its  proper  place  ;  that  the  good  of  the 
governed  has  been  finally  recognised  as  the  end  of 
government,  and  the  complete  responsibility  of 
governors  to  the  people  as  its  means ;  and  that 
the  dependence  of  natural  phenomena  in  general 
on  the  laws  of  action  of  what  we  call  matter  has 
become  an  axiom. 

But  it  was  to  bring  these  things  about,  and  to 
enforce  the  recognition  of  these  truths,  that 
Joseph  Priestley  laboured.  If  the  nineteenth 
century  is  other  and  better  than  the  eighteenth, 
it  is,  in  great  measure,  to  him,  and  to  such  men  as 
he,  that  we  owe  the  change.  If  the  twentieth 
century  is  to  be  better  than  the  nineteenth,  it  will 
be  because  there  are  among  us  men  who  walk  in 
Priestley's  footsteps. 

Such  men  are  not  those  whom  their  own 
generation  delights  to  honour ;  such  men,  in  fact, 
rarely  trouble  themselves  about  honour,  but  ask, 
in  another  spirit  than  Falstaff  's,  "  What  is  honour  ? 
Who  hath  it?  He  that  died  o'  Wednesday." 
But  whether  Priestley's  lot  be  theirs,  and  a  future 
generation,  in  justice  and  in  gratitude,  set  up 


I  JOSEPH   PRIESTLEY  37 

their  statues ;  or  whether  their  names  and  fame 
are  blotted  out  from  remembrance,  their  work  will 
live  as  long  as  time  endures.  To  all  eternity,  the 
sum  of  truth  and  right  will  have  been  increased 
by  their  means;  to  all  eternity,  falsehood  and 
injustice  will  be  the  weaker  because  they  have 
lived. 


n 

ON  THE  EDUCATIONAL  VALUE  OF  THE 
NATURAL  HISTOEY  SCIENCES 

[1854.] 

THE  subject  to  which  I  have  to  beg  your  atten- 
tion during  the  ensuing  hour  is  "  The  Relation  of 
Physiological  Science  to  other  branches  of  Know- 
ledge." 

Had  circumstances  permitted  of  the  delivery, 
in  their  strict  logical  order,  of  that  series  of  dis- 
courses of  which  the  present  lecture  is  a  member, 
I  should  have  preceded  my  friend  and  colleague 
Mr.  Henfrey,  who  addressed  you  on  Monday  last ; 
but  while,  for  the  sake  of  that  order,  I  must  beg 
you  to  suppose  that  this  discussion  of  the  Educa- 
tional bearings  of  Biology  in  general  does  precede 
that  of  Special  Zoology  and  Botany,  I  am  rejoiced 
to  be  able  to  take  advantage  of  the  light  thus 
already  thrown  upon  the  tendency  and  methods  of 
Physiological  Science. 

Regarding  Physiological  Science,  then,  in    its 


n        VALUE   OF   NATURAL   HISTORY  SCIENCES      39 

widest  sense — as  the  equivalent  of  Biology — the 
Science  of  Individual  Life — we  have  to  consider 
in  succession : 

1.  Its  position  and  scope  as  a  branch  of  know- 
ledge. 

2.  Its  value  as  a  means  of  mental  discipline. 

3.  Its  worth  as  practical  information. 
And  lastly, 

4.  At  what  period  it  may  best  be  made  a  branch 
of  Education. 

Our  conclusions  on  the  first  of  these  heads 
must  depend,  of  course,  upon  the  nature  of  the 
subject-matter  of  Biology  ;  and  I  think  a  few  pre- 
liminary considerations  will  place  before  you  in 
a  clear  light  the  vast  difference  which  exists 
between  the  living  bodies  with  which  Physio 
logical  science  is  concerned,  and  the  remainder 
of  the  universe; — between  the  phenomena  of 
Number  and  Space,  of  Physical  and  of  Chemical 
force,  on  the  one  hand,  and  those  of  Life  on  the 
other. 

The  mathematician,  the  physicist,  and  the 
chemist  contemplate  things  in  a  condition  of  rest ; 
they  look  upon  a  state  of  equilibrium  as  that  to 
which  all  bodies  normally  tend. 

The  mathematician  does  not  suppose  that  a 
quantity  will  alter,  or  that  a  given  point  in  space 
will  change  its  direction  with  regard  to  another 
point,  spontaneously.  And  it  is  the  same  with 
the  physicist.  When  Newton  saw  the  apple  fall, 

63 


40  ON   THE   EDUCATIONAL  VALUE  n 

he  concluded  at  once  that  the  act  of  falling  was 
not  the  result  of  any  power  inherent  in  the  apple, 
but  that  it  was  the  result  of  the  action  of  some- 
thing else  on  the  apple.  In  a  similar  manner,  all 
physical  force  is  regarded  as  the  disturbance  of  an 
equilibrium  to  which  things  tended  before  its 
exertion, — to  which  they  will  tend  again  after  its 
cessation. 

The  chemist  equally  regards  chemical  change 
in  a  body  as  the  effect  of  the  action  of  something 
external  to  the  body  changed.  A  chemical  com- 
pound once  formed  would  persist  for  ever,  if  no 
alteration  took  place  in  surrounding  conditions. 

But  to  the  student  of  Life  the  aspect  of  Nature 
is  reversed.  Here,  incessant,  and,  so  far  as  we 
know,  spontaneous  change  is  the  rule,  rest  the 
exception — the  anomaly  to  be  accounted  for. 
Living  things  have  no  inertia,  and  tend  to  no 
equilibrium. 

Permit  me,  however,  to  give  more  force  and 
clearness  to  these  somewhat  abstract  considera- 
tions by  an  illustration  or  two. 

Imagine  a  vessel  full  of  water,  at  the  ordinary 
temperature,  in  an  atmosphere  saturated  with 
vapour.  The  quantity  and  the  figure  of  that 
water  will  not  change,  so  far  as  we  know,  for 
ever. 

Suppose  a  lump  of  gold  be  thrown  into  the  vessel 
— motion  and  disturbance  of  figure  exactly  pro- 
portional to  the  momentum  of  the  gold  will  take 


n  OF   THE   NATURAL   HISTORY   SCIENCES         41 

place.  But  after  a  time  the  effects  of  this  disturb- 
ance will  subside — equilibrium  will  be  restored, 
and  the  water  will  return  to  its  passive  state. 

Expose  the  water  to  cold — it  will  solidify — and 
in  so  doing  its  particles  will  arrange  themselves 
in  definite  crystalline  shapes.  But  once  formed, 
these  crystals  change  no  further. 

Again,  substitute  for  the  lump  of  gold  some 
substance  capable  of  entering  into  chemical  rela- 
tions with  the  water : —  say,  a  mass  of  that  sub- 
stance which  is  called  "  protein  " — the  substance 
of  flesh : — a  very  considerable  disturbance  of 
equilibrium  will  take  place — all  sorts  of  chemical 
compositions  and  decompositions  will  occur ;  but 
in  the  end,  as  before,  the  result  will  be  the  re- 
sumption of  a  condition  of  rest. 

Instead  of  such  a  mass  of  dead  protein,  however, 
take  a  particle  of  living  protein — one  of  those 
minute  microscopic  living  things  which  throng  our 
pools,  and  are  known  as  Infusoria — such  a  creature, 
for  instance,  as  an  Euglena,  and  place  it  in  our 
vessel  of  water.  It  is  a  round  mass  provided  with 
a  long  filament,  and  except  in  this  peculiarity  of 
shape,  presents  no  appreciable  physical  or  chemical 
difference  whereby  it  might  be  distinguished  from 
the  particle  of  dead  protein. 

But  the  difference  in  the  phenomena  to  which 
it  will  give  rise  is  immense  :  in  the  first  place  it 
will  develop  a  vast  quantity  of  physical  force — 
cleaving  the  water  in  all  directions  with  consider- 


42  ON   THE   EDUCATIONAL   VALUE  n 

able  rapidity  by  means  of  the   vibrations  of  the 
long  filament  or  eilium. 

Nor  is  the  amount  of  chemical  energy  which 
the  little  creature  possesses  less  striking.  It  is  a 
perfect  laboratory  in  itself,  and  it  will  act  and  re- 
act upon  the  water  and  the  matters  contained 
therein ;  converting  them  into  new  compounds  re- 
sembling its  own  substance,  and  at  the  same  time- 
giving  up  portions  of  its  own  substance  which  have 
become  effete. 

Furthermore,  the  Euglena  will  increase  in  size  ; 
but  this  increase  is  by  no  means  unlimited,  as  the 
increase  of  a  crystal  might  be.  After  it  has 
grown  to  a  certain  extent  it  divides,  and  each  por- 
tion assumes  the  form  of  the  original,  and  proceeds 
to  repeat  the  process  of  growth  and  division. 

Nor  is  this  all.  For  after  a  series  of  such  divi- 
sions and  subdivisions,  these  minute  points  assume 
a  totally  new  form,  lose  their  long  tails — round 
themselves,  and  secrete  a  sort  of  envelope  or  box, 
in  which  they  remain  shut  up  for  a  time,  eventu- 
ally to  resume,  directly  or  indirectly,  their  primitive 
mode  of  existence. 

Now,  so  far  as  we  know,  there  is  no  natural  limit 
to  the  existence  of  the  Euglena,  or  of  any  other 
living  germ.  A  living  species  once  launched  into 
existence  tends  to  live  for  ever. 

Consider  how  widely  different  this  living  particle 
is  from  the  dead  atoms  with  which  the  physicist 
and  chemist  have  to  do  ! 


n  OF   THE   NATURAL   HISTORY  SCIENCES         43 

The  particle  of  gold  falls  to  the  bottom  and 
rests — the  particle  of  dead  protein  decomposes  and 
disappears — it  also  rests :  but  the  living  protein 
mass  neither  tends  to  exhaustion  of  its  forces  nor 
to  any  permanency  of  form,  but  is  essentially  dis- 
tinguished as  a  disturber  of  equilibrium  so  far  as 
force  is  concerned, — as  undergoing  continual  meta- 
morphosis and  change,  in  point  of  form. 

Tendency  to  equilibrium  of  force  and  to 
permanency  of  form,  then,  are  the  characters  of 
that  portion  of  the  universe  which  does  not  live — 
the  domain  of  the  chemist  and  physicist. 

Tendency  to  disturb  existing  equilibrium — to 
take  on  forms  which  succeed  one  another  in  definite 
cycles — is  the  character  of  the  living  world. 

What  is  the  cause  of  this  wonderful  difference 
between  the  dead  particle  and  the  living  particle 
of  matter  appearing  in  other  respects  identical  ? 
that  difference  to  which  we  give  the  name  of 
Life? 

I,  for  one,  cannot  tell  you.  It  may  be  that,  by 
and  by,  philosophers  will  discover  some  higher 
laws  of  which  the  facts  of  life  are  particular  cases 
— very  possibly  they  will  find  out  some  bond  be- 
tween physico-chemical  phenomena  on  the  one 
hand,  and  vital  phenomena  on  the  other.  At 
present,  however,  we  assuredly  know  of  none ; 
and  I  think  we  shall  exercise  a  wise  humility  in 
confessing  that/  for  us  at  least,  this  successive 
assumption  of  different  states — (external  conditions 


44  ON   THE   EDUCATIONAL  VALUE  n 

remaining  the  same) — this  spontaneity  of  action — 
if  I  may  use  a  term  which  implies  more  than  I 
would  be  answerable  for — -which  constitutes  so 
vast  and  plain  a  practical  distinction  between 
living  bodies  and  those  which  do  not  live,  is  an  ulti- 
mate fact ;  indicating  as  such,  the  existence  of  a 
broad  line  of  demarcation  between  the  subject- 
matter  of  Biological  and  that  of  all  other 
sciences. 

For  I  would  have  it  understood  that  this  simple 
Euglena  is  the  type  of  all  living  things,  so  far  as 
the  distinction  between  these  and  inert  matter  is 
concerned.  That  cycle  of  changes,  which  is  con- 
stituted by  perhaps  not  more  than  two  or  three 
steps  in  the  Eugleria,  is  as  clearly  manifested  in 
the  multitudinous  stages  through  which  the  germ 
of  an  oak  or  of  a  man  passes.  Whatever  forms 
the  Living  Being  may  take  on,  whether  simple  or 
complex,  production,  growth,  reproduction,  are  the 
phenomena  which  distinguish  it  from  that  which 
does  not  live. 

If  this  be  true,  it  is  clear  that  the  student,  in 
passing  from  the  physico-chemical  to  the  physio- 
logical sciences,  enters  upon  a  totally  new  order  of 
facts ;  and  it  will  next  be  for  us  to  consider  how 
far  these  new  facts  involve  new  methods,  or  require 
a  modification  of  those  with  which  he  is  already 
acquainted.  Now  a  great  deal  is  said  about  the 
peculiarity  of  the  scientific  method  in  general,  and 
of  the  different  methods  which  are  pursued  in  the 


II  OF   THE   NATURAL   HISTORY   SCIENCES         45 

different  sciences.  The  Mathematics  are  said  to 
have  one  special  method  ;  Physics  another,  Biology 
a  third,  and  so  forth.  For  my  own  part,  I  must 
confess  that  I  do  not  understand  this  phraseology. 

So  far  as  I  can  arrive  at  any  clear  comprehension 
of  the  matter,  Science  is  not,  as  many  would  seem 
to  suppose,  a  modification  of  the  black  art,  suited 
to  the  tastes  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  flour- 
ishing mainly  in  consequence  of  the  decay  of  the 
Inquisition. 

Science  is,  I  believe,  nothing  but  trained  and 
organised  common  sense,  differing  from  the  latter 
only  as  a  veteran  may  differ  from  a  raw  recruit :  and 
its  methods  differ  from  those  of  common  sense 
only  so  far  as  the  guardsman's  cut  and  thrust  differ 
from  the  manner  in  which  a  savage  wields  his  club. 
The  primary  power  is  the  same  in  each  case,  and 
perhaps  the  untutored  savage  has  the  more  brawny 
arm  of  the  two.  The  real  advantage  lies  in  the 
point  and  polish  of  the  swordsman's  weapon  ;  in 
the  trained  eye  quick  to  spy  out  the  weakness  of 
the  adversary ;  in  the  ready  hand  prompt  to  follow 
it  on  the  instant.  But,  after  all,  the  sword  exer- 
cise is  only  the  hewing  and  poking  of  the  clubman 
developed  and  perfected. 

So,  the  vast  results  obtained  by  Science  are  won 
by  no  mystical  faculties,  by  no  mental  processes, 
other  than  those  which  are  practised  by  every  one 
of  us,  in  the  humblest  and  meanest  affairs  of  life. 
A  detective  policeman  discovers  a  burglar  from  the 


48  ON   THE   EDUCATIONAL  VALUE  n 

marks  made  by  his  shoe,  by  a  mental  process 
identical  with  that  by  which  Cuvier  restored  the 
extinct  animals  of  Montmartre  from  fragments  of 
their  bones.  Nor  does  that  process  of  induction 
and  deduction  by  which  a  lady,  finding  a  stain  of 
a  peculiar  kind  upon  her  dress,  concludes  that 
somebody  has  upset  the  inkstand  thereon,  differ  in 
any  way,  in  kind,  from  that  by  which  Adams  and 
Leverrier  discovered  a  new  planet. 

The  man  of  science,  in  fact,  simply  uses  with 
scrupulous  exactness  the  methods  which  we  all, 
habitually  and  at  every  moment,  use  carelessly ; 
and  the  man  of  business  must  as  much  avail  him- 
self of  the  scientific  method — must  be  as  truly  a 
man  of  science — as  the  veriest  bookworm  of  us 
all ;  though  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  man  of  busi- 
ness will  find  himself  out  to  be  a  philosopher  with 
as  much  surprise  as  M.  Jourdain  exhibited  when 
he  discovered  that  he  had  been  all  his  life  talking 
prose.  If,  however,  there  be  no  real  difference  be- 
tween the  methods  of  science  and  those  of  common 
life,  it  would  seem,  on  the  face  of  the  matter, 
highly  improbable  that  there  should  be  any 
difference  between  the  methods  of  the  different 
sciences ;  nevertheless,  it  is  constantly  taken  for 
granted  that  there  is  a  very  wide  difference  between 
the  Physiological  and  other  sciences  in  point  of 
method. 

In  the  first  place  it  is  said — and  I  take  this  point 
tirst,  because  the  imputation  is  too  frequently  ad- 


II  OF  THE   NATURAL   HISTORY   SCIENCES        47 

mitted  by  Physiologists  themselves — that  Biology 
differs  from  the  Physico-chemical  and  Mathematical 
sciences  in  being  "  inexact." 

Now,  this  phrase  "  inexact "  must  refer  either 
to  the  methods  or  to  the  results  of  Physiological 
science. 

It  cannot  be  correct  to  apply  it  to  the  methods ; 
for,  as  I  hope  to  show  you  by  and  by,  these  are 
identical  in  all  sciences,  and  whatever  is  true  of 
Physiological  method  is  true  of  Physical  and 
Mathematical  method. 

Is  it  then  the  results  of  Biological  science  which 
are  "  inexact  "  ?  I  think  not.  If  I  say  that  respir- 
ation is  performed  by  the  lungs ;  that  digestion  is 
effected  in  the  stomach  ;  that  the  eye  is  the  organ 
of  sight ;  that  the  jaws  of  a  vertebrated  animal 
never  open  sideways,  but  always  up  and  down ; 
while  those  of  an  annulose  animal  always  open 
sideways,  and  never  up  and  down — I  am  enumer- 
ating propositions  which  are  as  exact  as  anything 
in  Euclid.  How  then  has  this  notion  of  the 
inexactness  of  Biological  science  come  about  ?  I 
believe  from  two  causes :  first,  because  in  conse- 
quence of  the  great  complexity  of  the  science  and 
the  multitude  of  interfering  conditions,  we  are 
very  often  only  enabled  to*  predict  approximately 
what  will  occur  under  given  circumstances ;  and 
secondly,  because,  on  account  of  the  comparative 
youth  of  the  Physiological  sciences,  a  great  many 
of  their  laws  are  still  imperfectly  worked  out. 


*8  ON   THE   EDUCATIONAL   VALUE  n 

But,  in  an  educational  point  of  view,  it  is  most 
important  to  distinguish  between  the  essence  of  a 
science  and  the  accidents  which  surround  it ;  and 
essentially,  the  methods  and  results  of  Physiology 
are  as  exact  as  those  of  Physics  or  Mathematics. 

It  is  said  that  the  Physiological  method  is 
especially  comparative l ;  and  this  dictum  also  finds 
favour  in  the  eyes  of  many.  I  should  be  sorry  to 
suggest  that  the  speculators  on  scientific  classifica- 
tion have  been  misled  by  the  accident  of  the  name 
of  one  leading  branch  of  Biology — Comparative 
Anatomy  ;  but  I  would  ask  whether  comparison, 
and  that  classification  which  is  the  result  of  com- 
parison, are  not  the  essence  of  every  science 
whatsoever  ?  How  is  it  possible  to  discover  a 
relation  of  cause  and  effect  of  any  kind  without 
comparing  a  series  of  cases  together  in  which  the 
supposed  cause  and  effect  occur  singly,  or  combined  ? 


1  "  In  the  third  place,  we  have  to  review  the  method  of  Com- 
parison, which  is  so  specially  adapted  to  the  study  of  living 
bodies,  and  by  which,  above  all  others,  that  study  must  be 
advanced.  In  Astronomy,  this  method  is  necessarily  inapplic- 
able ;  and  it  is  not  till  we  arrive  at  Chemistry  that  this  third 
means  of  investigation  can  be  used,  and  then  only  in  subordina- 
tion to  the  two  others.  It  is  in  the  study,  both  statical  and 
dynamical,  of  living  bodies  that  it  first  acquires  its  full  develop- 
ment ;  and  its  use  elsewhere  can  be  only  through  its  application 
here." — COMTE'S  Positive  Philosophy,  translated  by  Miss  Mar- 
tineau.  Yol.  i.  p.  372. 

By  what  method  does  M.  Comte  suppose  that  the  equality  or 
inequality  of  forces  and  quantities  and  the  dissimilarity  or 
similarity  of  forms — points  of  some  slight  importance  not  only 
in  Astronomy  and  Physics,  but  even  in  Mathematics — are 
ascertained,  if  not  by  Comparison  ? 


IT  OF   THE   NATURAL   HISTORY   SCIENCES         49 

So  far  from  comparison  being  in  any  way  peculiar 
to  Biological  science,  it  is,  I  think,  the  essence  of 
every  science. 

A  speculative  philosopher  again  tells  us  that 
the  Biological  sciences  are  distinguished  by  being 
sciences  of  observation  and  not  of  experiment ! l 

Of  all  the  strange  assertions  into  which  specu- 
lation without  practical  acquaintance  with  a 
subject  may  lead  even  an  able  man,  I  think  this  is 
the  very  strangest.  Physiology  not  an  experi- 
mental science  ?  Why,  there  is  not  a  function  of 
a  single  organ  in  the  body  which  has  not  been 
determined  wholly  and  solely  by  experiment? 
How  did  Harvey  determine  the  nature  of  the 
circulation,  except  by  experiment  ?  How  did  Sir 
Charles  Bell  determine  the  functions  of  the  roots 
of  the  spinal  nerves,  save  by  experiment  ?  How 
do  we  know  the  use  of  a  nerve  at  all,  except  by 
experiment  ?  Nay,  how  do  you  know  even  that 
your  eye  is  your  seeing  apparatus,  unless  you  make 
tlu  experiment  of  shutting  it  ;  or  that  your  ear  is 

1  "Proceeding  to  the  second  class  of  means, — Experiment 
cannot  but  be  less  and  less  decisive,  in  proportion  to  the  com- 
plexity of  the  phsenomena  to  be  explored  ;  and  therefore  we 
saw  this  resource  to  be  less  effectual  in  chemistry  than  in 
physics  :  and  we  now  find  that  it  is  eminently  useful  in 
chemistry  in  comparison  with  physiology.  In  fact,  the  nature 
of  the  phenomena  seems  to  offer  almost  insurmountable  impedi- 
ments to  any  extensive  and  prolific  application  of  such  a  procedure 
in  biology." — COMTE,  vol.  i.  p.  367. 

M.  Comte,  as  his  manner  is,  contradicts  himself  two  pages 
further  on,  but  that  will  hardly  relieve  him  from  the  respon- 
sibility of  such  a  paragraph  as  the  above. 


50  ON  THE  EDUCATIONAL  VALUE  n 

your  hearing  apparatus,  unless  you  close  it  up  and 
thereby  discover  that  you  become  deaf  ? 

It  would  really  be  much  more  true  to  say  that 
Physiology  is  the  experimental  science  par  ex- 
cellence of  all  sciences ;  that  in  which  there  is  least 
to  be  learnt  by  mere  observation,  and  that  which 
affords  the  greatest  field  for  the  exercise  of  those 
faculties  which  characterise  the  experimental 
philosopher.  I  confess,  if  any  one  were  to  ask  me 
for  a  model  application  of  the  logic  of  experiment, 
I  should  know  no  better  work  to  put  into  his 
hands  than  Bernard's  late  Researches  on  the 
Functions  of  the  Liver.1 

Not  to  give  this  lecture  a  too  controversial  tone, 
however,  I  must  only  advert  to  one  more  doctrine, 
held  by  a  thinker  of  our  own  age  and  country, 
whose  opinions  are  worthy  of  all  respect.  It  is, 
that  the  Biological  sciences  differ  from  all  others, 
inasmuch  as  in  them  classification  takes  place  by 
type  and  not  by  definition.2 

It  is  said,  in  short,  that  a  natural-history  class 
is  not  capable  of  being  defined — that  the  class 

1  Nouvelle  Fondion   du  Foie   considere  comme   organe  pro- 
ducteur  de  mature  sucree  chez  I'Homme  et  Us  Animaux,  par 
M.  Claude  Bernard. 

2  ' c  Natural  Groups  given  "by  Type,  not  "by  Definition 

The  class  is  steadily  fixed,  though  not  precisely  limited  ;  it  is 
given,  though  not  circumscribed ;  it  is  determined,  not  by  a 
boundary-line  without,  but  by  a  central  point  within  ;  not  by 
what  it  strictly  excludes,  but  what  it  eminently  includes  ;  by 
an  example,  not  by  a  precept  ;  in  short,  instead  of  Definition 
we  have  a  Type  for  our  director.     A  type  is  an  example  of  any 
ckss,  for  instance,  a  species  of  a  genus,  which  is  considered  aa 


II  OF   THE   NATURAL   HISTORY   SCIENCES         51 

Rosacese,  for  instance,  or  the  class  of  Fishes,  is  not 
accurately  and  absolutely  definable,  inasmuch  as 
its  members  will  present  exceptions  to  every 
possible  definition ;  and  that  the  members  of  the 
class  are  united  together  only  by  the  circumstance 
that  they  are  all  more  like  some  imaginary  average 
rose  or  average  fish,  than  they  resemble  anything 
else. 

But  here,  as  before,  I  think  the  distinction  has 
arisen  entirely  from  confusing  a  transitory  imper- 
fection with  an  essential  character.  So  long  as 
our  information  concerning  them  is  imperfect,  we 
class  all  objects  together  according  to  resemblances 
which  we  feel,  but  cannot  define  ;  we  group  them 
round  types,  in  short.  Thus  if  you  ask  an  ordinary 
person  what  kinds  of  animals  there  are,  he  will 
probably  say,  beasts,  birds,  reptiles,  fishes,  insects, 
&c.  Ask  him  to  define  a  beast  from  a  reptile,  and 
he  cannot  do  it :  but  he  says,  things  like  a  cow  or 
a  horse  are  beasts,  and  things  like  a  frog  or  a 
lizard  are  reptiles.  You  see  he  does  class  by  type, 
and  not  by  definition.  But  how  does  this  classifi- 
cation differ  from  that  of  the  scientific  Zoologist  ? 
How  does  the  meaning  of  the  scientific  class -name 
of  "  Mammalia "  differ  from  the  unscientific  of 
"  Beasts  "  ? 

eminently  possessing  the  characters  of  the  class.  All  the  species 
which  have  a  greater  affinity  with  this  type-species  than  with 
any  others,  form  the  genus,  and  are  ranged  about  it,  deviating 
from  it  in  various  directions  and  different  degrees." — WHI<> 
WELL,  The  Philosophy  of  tlw  Inductive  Sciences,  vol.  i.  pp.  476, 
477. 


62  ON   THE   EDUCATIONAL   VALUE  n 

Why,  exactly  because  the  former  depends  on  a 
definition,  the  latter  on  a  type.  The  class 
Mammalia  is  scientifically  defined  as  "  all  animals 
which  have  a  vertebrated  skeleton  and  suckle 
their  young."  Here  is  no  reference  to  type,  but  a 
definition  rigorous  enough  for  a  geometrician. 
And  such  is  the  character  which  every  scientific 
naturalist  recognises  as  that  to  which  his  classes 
must  aspire — knowing,  as  he  does,  that  classifica- 
tion by  type  is  simply  an  acknowledgment  of 
ignorance  and  a  temporary  device. 

So  much  in  the  way  of  negative  argument  as 
against  the  reputed  differences  between  Biological 
and  other  methods.  No  such  differences,  I  believe, 
really  exist.  The  subject-matter  of  Biological 
science  is  different  from  that  of  other  sciences,  but 
the  methods  of  all  are  identical ;  and  these 
methods  are — 

1.  Observation  of  facts — including   under    this 
head   that  artificial  observation   which,  is   called 
experiment. 

2.  That  process  of  tying  up  similar  facts  into 
bundles,  ticketed    and  ready    for   use,    which   ia 
called  Comparison  and  Classification, — the  results 
of  the  process,  the  ticketed  bundles,  being  named 
General  propositions. 

3.  Deduction,  which  takes  us  from  the  general 
proposition  to  facts  again — teaches  us,  if  I  may  so 
say,  to  anticipate  from  the  ticket  what  is  inside 
the  bundle.     And  finally — 


'II  OF   THE   NATURAL   HISTORY   SCIENCES         53 

4.  Verification,  which  is  the  process  of  ascer- 
taining whether,  in  point  of  fact,  our  anticipation 
is  a  correct  one. 

Such  are  the  methods  of  all  science  whatsoever ; 
but  perhaps  you  will  permit  me  to  give  you  an 
illustration  of  their  employment  in  the  science  of 
Life ;  and  I  will  take  as  a  special  case  the 
establishment  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Circulation  of 
the  Blood. 

In  this  case,  simple  observation  yields  us  a 
knowledge  of  the  existence  of  the  blood  from  some 
accidental  haemorrhage,  we  will  say  ;  we  may  even 
grant  that  it  informs  us  of  the  localisation  of  this 
blood  in  particular  vessels,  the  heart,  &c.,  from 
some  accidental  cut  or  the  like.  It  teaches  also 
the  existence  of  a  pulse  in  various  parts  of  the 
body,  and  acquaints  us  with  the  structure  of  the 
heart  and  vessels. 

Here,  however,  simple  olservation  stops,  and  we 
must  have  recourse  to  experiment. 

You  tie  a  vein,  and  you  find  that  the  blood 
accumulates  on  the  side  of  the  ligature  opposite 
the  heart.  You  tie  an  artery,  and  you  find  that 
the  blood  accumulates  on  the  side  near  the  heart. 
Open  the  chest,  and  you  see  the  heart  contracting 
with  great  force.  Make  openings  into  its  principal 
cavities,  and  you  will  find  that  all  the  blood  flows 
out,  and  no  more  pressure  is  exerted  on  either  side 
of  the  arterial  or  venous  ligature. 

Now  all  these  facts,  taken  together,  constitute 


54»  ON   THE   EDUCATIONAL  VALUE  n 

the  evidence  that  the  blood  is  propelled  by  the 
heart  through  the  arteries,  and  returns  by  the  veins 
— that,  in  short,  the  blood  circulates. 

Suppose  our  experiments  and  observations  have 
been  made  on  horses,  then  we  group  and  ticket 
them  into  a  general  proposition,  thus  : — all  horses 
have  a  circulation  of  their  Hood. 

Henceforward  a  horse  is  a  sort  of  indication  or 
label,  telling  us  where  we  shall  find  a  peculiar 
series  of  phenomena  called  the  circulation  of  the 
blood. 

Here  is  our  general  proposition,  then. 

How,  and  when,  are  we  justified  in  making  our 
next  step — a  deduction  from  it  ? 

Suppose  our  physiologist,  whose  experience  is 
limited  to  horses,  meets  with  a  zebra  for  the  first 
time, — will  he  suppose  that  this  generalisation 
holds  good  for  zebras  also  ? 

That  depends  very  much  on  his  turn  of  mind. 
But  we  will  suppose  him  to  be  a  bold  man.  He 
will  say,  "  The  zebra  is  certainly  not  a  horse,  but 
it  is  very  like  one, — so  like,  that  it  must  be  the 
'ticket 'or  mark  of  a  blood-circulation  also;  and, 
I  conclude  that  the  zebra  has  a  circulation." 

That  is  a  deduction,  a  very  fair  deduction,  but 
by  no  means  to  be  considered  scientifically  secure. 
This  last  quality  in  fact  can  only  be  given  by 
verification — that  is,  by  making  a  zebra  the  subject 
of  all  the  experiments  performed  on  the  horse.  Of 
course,  in  the  present  case,  the  deduction  would  be 


H  OF  THE  NATURAL  HISTORY  SCIENCES        55 

confirmed  by  this  process  of  verification,  and  the 
result  would  be,  not  merely  a  positive  widening  of 
knowledge,  but  a  fair  increase  of  confidence  in  the 
truth  of  one's  generalisations  in  other  cases. 

Thus,  having  settled  the  point  in  the  zebra  and 
horse,  our  philosopher  would  have  great  confidence 
in  the  existence  of  a  circulation  in  the  ass.  Nay, 
I  fancy  most  persons  would  excuse  him,  if  in  this 
case  he  did  not  take  the  trouble  to  go  through  the 
process  of  verification  at  all ;  and  it  would  not  be 
without  a  parallel  in  the  history  of  the  human 
mind,  if  our  imaginary  physiologist  now  maintained 
that  he  was  acquainted  with  asinine  circulation  ci 
priori. 

However,  if  I  might  impress  any  caution  upon 
your  minds,  it  is,  the  utterly  conditional  nature  of 
all  our  knowledge, — the  danger  of  neglecting  the 
process  of  verification  under  any  circumstances ; 
and  the  film  upon  which  we  rest,  the  moment  our 
deductions  carry  us  beyond  the  reach  of  this  great 
process  of  verification.  There  is  no  better  instance 
of  this  than  is  afforded  by  the  history  of  our 
knowledge  of  the  circulation  of  the  blood  in  the 
animal  kingdom  until  the  year  1824.  In  every 
animal  possessing  a  circulation  at  all,  which  had 
been  observed  up  to  that  time,  the  current  of  the 
blood  was  known  to  take  one  definite  and  invari- 
able direction.  Now,  there  is  a  class  of  animals 
called  Ascidians,  which  possess  a  heart  and  a 
circulation,  and  up  to  the  period  of  which  I  speak, 

C>4 


56  ON  THE   EDUCATIONAL  VALUE  n 

no  one  would  have  dreamt  of  questioning  the 
propriety  of  the  deduction,  that  these  creatures 
have  a  circulation  in  one  direction  ;  nor  would  any 
one  have  thought  it  worth  while  to  verify  the 
point.  But,  in  that  year,  M.  von  Hasselt,  happen- 
ing to  examine  a  transparent  animal  of  this  class, 
found,  to  his  infinite  surprise,  that  after  the  heart 
had  beat  a  certain  number  of  times,  it  stopped, 
and  then  began  beating  the  opposite  way — so  as 
to  reverse  the  course  of  the  current,  which  returned 
by  and  by  to  its  original  direction. 

I  have  myself  timed  the  heart  of  these  little 
animals.  I  found  it  as  regular  as  possible  in  its 
periods  of  reversal :  and  I  know  no  spectacle  in 
the  animal  kingdom  more  wonderful  than  that 
which  it  presents — all  the  more  wonderful  that  to 
this  day  it  remains  an  unique  fact,  peculiar  to  this 
class  among  the  whole  animated  world.  At  the 
same  time  I  know  of  no  more  striking  case  of  the 
necessity  of  the  verification  of  even  those  deduc- 
tions which  seem  founded  on  the  widest  and 
safest  inductions. 

Such  are  the  methods  of  Biology — methods 
which  are  obviously  identical  with  those  of  all 
other  sciences,  and  therefore  wholly  incompetent 
to  form  the  ground  of  any  distinction  between  it 
and  them.1 


1  Save  for  the  pleasure  of  doing  so,  I  need  hardly  point  out 
my  obligations  to  Mr.  J.  S.  Mill's  System  of  Logic,  in  this  view 
of  scientific  method. 


II  OF  THE  NATURAL   HISTORY  SCIENCES         57 

But  I  shall  be  asked  at  once,  Do  you  mean  to 
say  that  there  is  no  difference  between  the  habit 
of  mind  of  a  mathematician  and  that  of  a  natural- 
ist ?  Do  you  imagine  that  Laplace  might  have 
been  put  into  the  Jardin  des  Plantes,  and  Cuvier 
into  the  Observatory,  with  equal  advantage  to  the 
progress  of  the  sciences  they  professed  ? 

To  which  I  would  reply,  that  nothing  could  be 
further  from  my  thoughts.  But  different  habits 
and  various  special  tendencies  of  two  sciences  do 
not  imply  different  methods.  The  mountaineer 
and  the  man  of  the  plains  have  very  different 
habits  of  progression,  and  each  would  be  at  a  loss 
in  the  other's  place  ;  but  the  method  of  progression, 
by  putting  one  leg  before  the  other,  is  the  same  in 
each  case.  Every  step  of  each  is  a  combination  of 
a  lift  and  a  push  ;  but  the  mountaineer  lifts  more 
and  the  lowlander  pushes  more.  And  I  think  the 
case  of  two  sciences  resembles  this. 

I  do  not  question  for  a  moment,  that  while  the 
Mathematician  is  busy  with  deductions  from 
general  propositions,  the  Biologist  is  more  es- 
pecially occupied  with  observation,  comparison, 
and  those  processes  which  lead  to  general  proposi- 
tions. All  I  wish  to  insist  upon  is,  that  this 
difference  depends  not  on  any  fundamental  dis- 
tinction in  the  sciences  themselves,  but  on  the 
accidents  of  their  subject-matter,  of  their  relative 
complexity,  and  consequent  relative  perfection. 

The  Mathematician  deals  with  two  properties  of 


58  ON   THE  EDUCATIONAL   VALUE  n 

objects  only,  number  and  extension,  and  all  the 
inductions  he  wants  have  been  formed  and  finished 
ages  ago.  He  is  occupied  now  with  nothing  but 
deduction  and  verification. 

The  Biologist  deals  with  a  vast  number  of 
properties  of  objects,  and  his  inductions  will  not 
be  completed,  I  fear,  for  ages  to  come  ;  but  when 
they  are,  his  science  will  be  as  deductive  and  as 
exact  as  the  Mathematics  themselves. 

Such  is  the  relation  of  Biology  to  those  sciences 
which  deal  with  objects  having  fewer  properties 
than  itself.  But  as  the  student,  in  reaching 
Biology,  looks  back  upon  sciences  of  a  less  complex 
and  therefore  more  perfect  nature ;  so,  on  the 
other  hand,  does  he  look  forward  to  other  more 
complex  and  less  perfect  branches  of  knowledge. 
Biology  deals  only  with  living  beings  as  isolated 
things — treats  only  of  the  life  of  the  individual : 
but  there  is  a  higher  division  of  science  still,  which 
considers  living  beings  as  aggregates — which  deals 
with  the  relation  of  living  beings  one  to  another — 
the  science  which  observesmeu — whose  experiments 
are  made  by  nations  one  upon  another,  in  battle- 
fields— whose  general  propositions  are  embodied  in 
history,  morality,  and  religion — whose  deductions 
lead  to  our  happiness  or  our  misery — and  whose 
verifications  so  often  come  too  late,  and  serve  only 

"  To-point  a  moral,  or  adorn  a  tale" — 

I  mean  the  science  of  Society  or  Sociology. 


II  OF   THE   NATURAL   HISTORY   SCIENCES         59 

I  think  it  is  one  of  the  grandest  features  of 
Biology,  that  it  occupies  this  central  position  in 
human  knowledge.  There  is  no  side  of  the  human 
mind  which  physiological  study  leaves  uncultivated. 
Connected  by  innumerable  ties  with  abstract 
science,  Physiology  is  yet  in  the  most  intimate 
relation  with  humanity  ;  and  by  teaching  us  that 
law  and  order,  and  a  definite  scheme  of  develop- 
ment, regulate  even  the  strangest  and  wildest 
manifestations  of  individual  life,  she  prepares  the 
student  to  look  for  a  goal  even  amidst  the  erratic 
wanderings  of  mankind,  and  to  believe  that  history 
offers  something  more  than  an  entertaining  chaos 
• — a  journal  of  a  toilsome,  tragi-comic  march  no- 
whither. 

The  preceding  considerations  have,  I  hope, 
served  to  indicate  the  replies  which  befit  the  first 
two  of  the  questions  which  I  set  before  you  at 
starting,  viz.  What  is  the  range  and  position  of 
Physiological  Science  as  a  branch  of  knowledge, 
and  what  is  its  value  as  a  means  of  mental  dis- 
cipline ? 

Its  subject-matter  is  a  large  moiety  of  the  uni- 
verse— its  position  is  midway  between  the  physico- 
chemical  and  the  social  sciences.  Its  value  as  a 
branch  of  discipline  is  partly  that  which  it  has  in 
common  with  all  sciences — the  training  and 
strengthening  of  common  sense ;  partly  that 
which  is  more  peculiar  to  itself — the  great  exercise 
which  it  affords  to  the  faculties  of  observation  and 


60  ON  THE   EDUCATIONAL  VALUE  n 

comparison  ;  and,  I  may  add,  the  exactness  of 
knowledge  which  it  requires  on  the  part  of  those 
among  its  votaries  who  desire  to  extend  its  bound- 
aries. 

If  what  has  been  said  as  to  the  position  and 
scope  of  Biology  be  correct,  our  third  question — 
What  is  the  practical  value  of  physiological  in- 
struction ? — might,  one  would  think,  be  left  to 
answer  itself. 

On  other  grounds  even,  were  mankind  deserving 
of  the  title  "rational,"  which  they  arrogate  to 
themselves,  there  can  be  no  question  that  they 
would  consider,  as  the  most  necessary  of  all 
branches  of  instruction  for  themselves  and  for 
their  children,  that  which  professes  to  acquaint 
them  with  the  conditions  of  the  existence  they 
prize  so  highly — which  teaches  them  how  to  avoid 
disease  and  to  cherish  health,  in  themselves  and 
those  who  are  dear  to  them. 

I  am  addressing,  I  imagine,  an  audience  of 
educated  persons-;  and  yet  I  dare  venture  to  assert 
that,  with  the  exception  of  those  of  my  hearers 
who  may  chance  to  have  received  a  medical  edu- 
cation, there  is  not  one  who  could  tell  me  what  is 
the  meaning  and  use  of  an  act  which  he  performs 
a  score  of  times  every  minute,  and  whose  suspen- 
sion would  involve  his  immediate  death ; — I  mean 
the  act  of  breathing — or  who  could  state  in  precise 
terms  why  it  is  that  a  confined  atmosphere  is 
injurious  to  health. 


II  OF  THE   NATURAL   HISTORY  SCIENCES         61 

The  practical  value  of  Physiological  knowledge  ! 
Why  is  it  that  educated  men  can  be  found  to  main- 
tain that  a  slaughter-house  in  the  midst  of  a  great 
city  is  rather  a  good  thing  than  otherwise  ? — that 
mothers  persist  in  exposing  the  largest  possible 
amount  of  surface  of  their  children  to  the  cold,  by 
the  absurd  style  of  dress  they  adopt,  and  then 
marvel  at  the  peculiar  dispensation  of  Providence, 
which  removes  their  infants  by  bronchitis  and 
gastric  fever  ?  Why  is  it  that  quackery  rides 
rampant  over  the  land  ;  and  that  not  long  ago,  one 
of  the  largest  public  rooms  in  this  great  city  could 
be  filled  by  an  audience  gravely  listening  to  the 
reverend  expositor  of  the  doctrine — that  the  simple 
physiological  phenomena  known  as  spirit-rapping, 
table-turning,  phreno-magnetism,  and  I  know  not 
what  other  absurd  and  inappropriate  names,  are 
due  to  the  direct  and  personal  agency  of  Satan  ? 

Why  is  all  this,  except  from  the  utter  ignorance 
as  to  the  simplest  laws  of  their  own  animal  life, 
which  prevails  among  even  the  most  highly  edu- 
cated persons  in  this  country  ? 

But  there  are  other  branches  of  Biological 
Science,  besides  Physiology  proper,  whose  practical 
influence,  though  less  obvious,  is  not,  as  I  believe, 
less  certain.  I  have  heard  educated  men  speak 
with  an  ill-disguised  contempt  of  the  studies  of  the 
naturalist,  and  ask,  not  without  a  shrug,  "  What  is 
the  use  of  knowing  all  about  these  miserable 
animals — what  bearing  has  it  on  human  life  ?  " 


62  ON   THE   EDUCATIONAL  VALUE  n 

I  will  endeavour  to  answer  that  question.  I  take 
it  that  all  will  admit  there  is  definite  Government 
of  this  universe — that  its  pleasures  and  pains  are 
not  scattered  at  random,  but  are  distributed  in 
accordance  with  orderly  and  fixed  laws,  and  that  it 
is  only  in  accordance  with  all  we  know  of  the  rest 
of  the  world,  that  there  should  be  an  agreement 
between  one  portion  of  the  sensitive  creation  and 
another  in  these  matters. 

Surely  then  it  interests  us  to  know  the  lot  of 
other  animal  creatures — however  far  below  us,  they 
are  still  the  sole  created  things  which  share  with 
us  the  capability  of  pleasure  and  the  susceptibility 
to  pain. 

I  cannot  but  think  that  he  who  finds  a  certain 
proportion  of  pain  and  evil  inseparably  woven  up 
in  the  life  of  the  very  worms,  will  bear  his  own 
share  with  more  courage  and  submission ;  and  will, 
at  any  rate,  view  with  suspicion  those  weakly 
amiable  theories  of  the  Divine  government,  which 
would  have  us  believe  pain  to  be  an  oversight  and 
a  mistake, — to  be  corrected  by  and  by.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  predominance  of  happiness  among 
living  things — their  lavish  beauty — the  secret  and 
wonderful  harmony  which  pervades  them  all,  from 
the  highest  to  the  lowest,  are  equally  striking 
refutations  of  that  modern  Manichean  doctrine, 
which  exhibits  the  world  as  a  slave-mill,  worked 
with  many  tears,  for  mere  utilitarian  ends. 

There  is  yet  another  way  in  which  natural  history 


n          OF  THE   NATURAL   HISTORY   SCIENCES         63 

may,  I  am  convinced,  take  a  profound  hold  upon 
practical  life, — and  that  is,  by  its  influence  over 
our  finer  feelings,  as  the  greatest  of  all  sources  of 
that  pleasure  which  is  derivable  from  beauty.  I 
do  not  pretend  that  natural-history  knowledge,  as 
such,  can  increase  our  sense  of  the  beautiful  in 
natural  objects.  I  do  not  suppose  that  the  dead 
soul  of  Peter  Bell,  of  whom  the  great  poet  of 
nature  says, — 

A  primrose  by  the  river  s  brim, 
A  yellow  primrose  was  to  him, — 
And  it  was  nothing  more, — 

would  have  been  a  whit  roused  from  its  apathy  by 
the  information  that  the  primrose  is  a  Dicotyle- 
donous Exogen,  with  a  monopetalous  corolla  and 
central  placentation.  But  I  advocate  natural- 
history  knowledge  from  this  point  of  view,  because 
it  would  lead  us  to  seek  the  beauties  of  natural 
objects,  instead  of  trusting  to  chance  to  force  them 
on  our  attention.  To  a  person  uninstructed  in 
natural  history,  his  country  or  sea-side  stroll  is  a 
walk  through  a  gallery  filled  with  wonderful  works 
of  art,  nine-tenths  of  which  have  their  faces  turned 
to  the  wall.  Teach  him  something  of  natural 
history,  and  you  place  in  his  hands  a  catalogue  of 
those  which  are  worth  turning  round.  Surely  our 
innocent  pleasures  are  not  so  abundant  in  this  life, 
that  we  can  afford  to  despise  this  or  any  other 
source  of  them.  We  should  fear  being  banished 
for  our  neglect  to  that  limbo,  where  the  great 


64  ON  THE  EDUCATIONAL  VALUE  n 

Florentine  tells  us  are  those  who,  during  this  life, 
"  wept  when  they  might  be  joyful." 

But  I  shall  be  trespassing  unwarrantably  on 
your  kindness,  if  I  do  not  proceed  at  once  to  my 
last  point — the  time  at  which  Physiological 
Science  should  first  form  a  part  of  the  Curriculum 
of  Education. 

The  distinction  between  the  teaching  of  the 
facts  of  a  science  as  instruction,  and  the  teaching 
it  systematically  as  knowledge,  has  already  been 
placed  before  you  in  a  previous  lecture  :  and  it 
appears  to  me  that,  as  with  other  sciences,  the 
common  facts  of  Biology— the  uses  of  parts  of  the 
body — the  names  and  habits  of  the  living  creatures 
which  surround  us — may  be  taught  with  ad- 
vantage to  the  youngest  child.  Indeed,  the 
avidity  of  children  for  this  kind  of  knowledge, 
and  the  comparative  ease  with  which  they  retain 
it,  is  something  quite  marvellous.  I  doubt 
whether  any  toy  would  be  so  acceptable  to  young 
children  as  a  vivarium  of  the  same  kind  as,  but 
of  course  on  a  smaller  scale  than,  those  admirable 
devices  in  the  Zoological  Gardens. 

On  the  other  hand,  systematic  teaching  in 
Biology  cannot  be  attempted  with  success  until 
the  student  has  attained  to  a  certain  knowledge 
of  physics  and  chemistry :  for  though  the  phse- 
nomena  of  life  are  dependent  neither  on  physical 
nor  on  chemical,  but  on  vital  forces,  yet  they 
result  in  all  sorts  of  physical  and  chemical 


II  OF  THE   NATURAL   HISTORY  SCIENCES        65 

changes,  which  can  only  be  judged  by  their  own 
laws. 

And  now  to  sum  up  in  a  few  words  the  con- 
clusions to  which  I  hope  you  see  reason  to  follow 
•me. 

Biology  needs  no  apologist  when  she  demands 
a  place — and  a  prominent  place — in  any  scheme 
of  education  worthy  of  the  name.  Leave  out  the 
Physiological  sciences  from  your  curriculum,  and 
you  launch  the  student  into  the  world,  undisci- 
plined in  that  science  whose  subject-matter  would 
best  develop  his  powers  of  observation ;  ignorant 
of  facts  of  the  deepest  importance  for  his  own  and 
others'  welfare ;  blind  to  the  richest  sources  of 
beauty  in  God's  creation ;  and  unprovided  with 
that  belief  in  a  living  law,  and  an  order  manifest- 
ing itself  in  and  through  endless  change  and 
variety,  which  might  serve  to  check  and  moderate 
that  phase  of  despair  through  which,  if  he  take 
an  earnest  interest  in  social  problems,  he  will 
assuredly  sooner  or  later  pass. 

Finally,  one  word  for  myself.  I  have  not 
hesitated  to  speak  strongly  where  I  have  felt 
strongly;  and  I  am  but  too  conscious  that  the 
indicative  and  imperative  moods  have  too  often 
taken  the  place  of  the  more  becoming  subjunctive 
and  conditional.  I  feel,  therefore,  how  necessary 
it  is  to  beg  you  to  forget  the  personality  of  him 
who  has  thus  ventured  to  address  you,  and  to  con- 
sider only  the  truth  or  error  in  what  has  been  said. 


Ill 

EMANCIPATION— BLACK  AND  WHITE 

[1865.] 

QUASHIE'S  plaintive  inquiry,  "Am  I  not  a  man 
and  a  brother  ? "  seems  at  last  to  have  received 
its  final  reply — the  recent  decision  of  the  fierce 
trial  by  battle  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic 
fully  concurring  with  that  long  since  delivered 
here  in  a  more  peaceful  way. 

The  question  is  settled ;  but  even  those  who 
are  most  thoroughly  convinced  that  the  doom  is 
just,  must  see  good  grounds  for  repudiating  half 
the  arguments  which  have  been  employed  by  the 
winning  side ;  and  for  doubting  whether  its 
ultimate  results  will  embody  the  hopes  of  the 
victors,  though  they  may  more  than  realise  the 
fears  of  the  vanquished.  It  may  be  quite  true 
that  some  negroes  are  better  than  some  white 
men;  but  no  rational  man,  cognisant  of  the  facts, 
believes  that  the  average  negro  is  the  equal,  still 


IH  EMANCIPATION — BLACK   AND  WHITE          G7 

less  the  superior,  of  the  average  white  man.  And, 
if  this  be  true,  it  is  simply  incredible  that,  when 
all  his  disabilities  are  removed,  and  our  prog- 
nathous relative  has  a  fair  field  and  no  favour,  as 
well  as  no  oppressor,  he  will  be  able  to  compete 
successfully  with  his  bigger-brained  and  smaller- 
jawed  rival,  in  a  contest  which  is  to  be  carried  on 
by  thoughts  and  not  by  bites.  The  highest  places 
in  the  hierarchy  of  civilisation  will  assuredly  not 
be  within  the  reach  of  our  dusky  cousins,  though  it 
is  by  no  means  necessary  that  they  should  be  re- 
stricted to  the  lowest.  But  whatever  the  position 
of  stable  equilibrium  into  which  the  laws  of  social 
gravitation  may  bring  the  negro,  all  responsibility 
for  the  result  will  henceforward  lie  between 
Nature  and  him.  The  white  man  may  wash  his 
hands  of  it,  and  the  Caucasian  conscience  be  void 
of  reproach  for  evermore.  And  this,  if  we  look  to 
the  bottom  of  the  matter,  is  the  real  justification 
for  the  abolition  policy. 

The  doctrine  of  equal  natural  rights  may  be  an 
illogical  delusion ;  emancipation  may  convert  the 
slave  from  a  well-fed  animal  into  a  pauperised 
man;  mankind  may  even  have  to  do  without 
cotton  shirts ;  but  all  these  evils  must  be  faced  if 
the  moral  law,  that  no  human  being  can  arbit- 
rarily dominate  over  another  without  grievous 
damage  to  his  own  nature,  be,  as  many  think,  as 
readily  demonstrable  by  experiment  as  any 
physical  truth.  If  this  be  true,  no  slavery  can 


68          EMANCIPATION — BLACK   AND  WHITE  nr 

be  abolished  without  a  double  emancipation,  and 
the  master  will  benefit  by  freedom  more  than  the 
freed-man. 

The  like  considerations  apply  to  all  the  other 
questions  of  emancipation  which  are  at  present 
stirring  the  world — the  multifarious  demands  that 
classes  of  mankind  shall  be  relieved  from  restric- 
tions imposed  by  the  artifice  of  man,  and  not  by 
the  necessities  of  Nature.  One  of  the  most 
important,  if  not  the  most  important,  of  all  these, 
is  that  which  daily  threatens  to  become  the 
"  irrepressible "  woman  question.  What  social 
and  political  rights  have  women  ?  What  ought 
they  to  be  allowed,  or  not  allowed,  to  do,  be,  and 
suffer  ?  And,  as  involved  in,  and  underlying  all 
these  questions,  how  ought  they  to  be  educated  ? 

There  are  philogynists  as  fanatical  as  any 
"  misogynists "  who,  reversing  our  antiquated 
notions,  bid  the  man  look  upon  the  woman  as 
the  higher  type  of  humanity ;  who  ask  us  to 
regard  the  female  intellect  as  the  clearer  and  the 
quicker,  if  not  the  stronger  ;  who  desire  us  to 
look  up  to  the  feminine  moral  sense  as  the  purer 
and  the  nobler  ;  and  bid  man  abdicate  his  usurped 
sovereignty  over  Nature  in  favour  of  the  female 
line.  On  the  other  hand,  there  are  persons  not 
to  be  outdone  in  all  loyalty  and  just  respect  for 
womankind,  but  by  nature  hard  of  head  and 
haters  of  delusion,  however  charming,  who 
not  only  repudiate  the  new  woman-worship 


Ill  EMANCIPATION — BLACK   AND  WHITE          69 

which  so  many  sentimentalists  and  some 
philosophers  are  desirous  of  setting  up,  but, 
carrying  their  audacity  further,  deny  even  the 
natural  equality  of  the  sexes.  They  assert,  on 
the  contrary,  that  in  every  excellent  character, 
whether  mental  or  physical,  the  average  woman 
is  inferior  to  the  average  man,  in  the  sense  of 
having  that  character  less  in  quantity  and  lower 
in  quality.  Tell  these  persons  of  the  rapid  per- 
ceptions and  the  instinctive  intellectual  insight  of 
women,  and  they  reply  that  the  feminine  mental 
peculiarities,  which  pass  under  these  names,  are 
merely  the  outcome  of  a  greater  impressibility  to 
the  superficial  aspects  of  things,  and  of  the 
absence  of  that  restraint  upon  expression  which, 
in  men,  is  imposed  by  reflection  and  a  sense  of 
responsibility.  Talk  of  the  passive  endurance  of 
the  weaker  sex,  and  opponents  of  this  kind  remind 
you  that  Job  was  a  man,  and  that,  until  quite 
recent  times,  patience  and  long-suffering  were 
not  counted  among  the  specially  feminine  virtues. 
Claim  passionate  tenderness  as  especially  feminine, 
and  the  inquiry  is  made  whether  all  the  best 
love-poetry  in  existence  (except,  perhaps,  the 
"  Sonnets  from  the  Portuguese " )  has  not  been 
written  by  men ;  whether  the  song  which  embodies 
the  ideal  of  pure  and  tender  passion — "  Adelaida  " 
— was  written  by  Frau  Beethoven;  whether  it 
was  the  Fornarina,  or  Raphael,  who  painted  the 
Sis  tine  Madonna.  Nay,  we  have  known  one  such 


70  EMANCIPATION — BLACK  AND  WHITE  ni 

heretic  go  so  far  as  to  lay  his  hands  upon  the  ark 
itself,  so  to  speak,  and  to  defend  the  startling 
paradox  that,  even  in  physical  beauty,  man  is  the 
superior.  He  admitted,  indeed,  that  there  was  a 
brief  period  of  early  youth  when  it  might  be  hard 
to  say  whether  the  prize  should  be  awarded  to  the 
graceful  undulations  of  the  female  figure,  or  the 
perfect  balance  and  supple  vigour  of  the  male 
frame.  But  while  our  new  Paris  might  hesitate 
between  the  youthful  Bacchus  and  the  Venus 
emerging  from  the  foam,  he  averred  that,  when 
Venus  and  Bacchus  had  reached  thirty,  the  point 
no  longer  admitted  of  a  doubt ;  the  male  form 
having  then  attained  its  greatest  nobility,  while 
the  female  is  far  gone  in  decadence  ;  and  that,  at 
this  epoch,  womanly  beauty,  so  far  as  it  is  inde- 
pendent of  grace  or  expression,  is  a  question  of 
drapery  and  accessories. 

Supposing,  however,  that  all  these  arguments 
have  a  certain  foundation ;  admitting,  for  a 
moment,  that  they  are  comparable  to  those  by 
which  the  inferiority  of  the  negro  to  the  white 
man  may  be  demonstrated,  are  they  of  any  value 
as  against  woman-emancipation  ?  Do  they  afford 
us  the  smallest  ground  for  refusing  to  educate 
women  as  well  as  men — to  give  women  the  same 
civil  and  political  rights  as  .men  ?  No  mistake  is 
so  commonly  made  by  clever  people  as  that  of 
assuming  a  cause  to  be  bad  because  the  arguments 
of  its  supporters  are,  to  a  great  extent,  non- 


Ill  EMANCIPATION— BLACK   AND   WHITE          71 

sensical.  And  we  conceive  that  those  who  may 
laugh  at  the  arguments  of  the  extreme  philogy- 
nists, may  yet  feel  bound  to  work  heart  and  soul 
towards  the  attainment  of  their  practical  ends. 

As  regards  education,  for  example.  Granting 
the  alleged  defects  of  women,  is  it  not  somewhat 
absurd  to  sanction  and  maintain  a  system  of 
education  which  would  seem  to  have  been  specially 
contrived  to  exaggerate  all  these  defects  ? 

Naturally  not  so  firmly  strung,  nor  so  well 
balanced  as  boys,  girls  are  in  great  measure 
debarred  from  the  sports  and  physical  exercises 
which  are  justly  thought  absolutely  necessary  for 
the  full  development  of  the  vigour  of  the  more 
favoured  sex.  Women  are,  by  nature,  more 
excitable  than  men — prone  to  be  swept  by  tides 
of  emotion,  proceeding  from  hidden  and  inward, 
as  well  as  from  obvious  and  external  causes ;  and 
female  education  does  its  best  to  weaken  every 
physical  counterpoise  to  this  nervous  mobility — 
tends  in  all  ways  to  stimulate  the  emotional  part 
of  the  mind  and  stunt  the  rest.  We  find  girls 
naturally  timid,  inclined  to  dependence,  born 
conservatives ;  and  we  teach  them  that  indepen- 
dence is  unladylike ;  that  blind  faith  is  the  right 
frame  of  mind  ;  and  that  whatever  we  may  be 
permitted,  and  indeed  encouraged,  to  do  to  our 
brother,  our  sister  is  to  be  left  to  the  tyranny  of 
authority  and  tradition.  With  few  insignificant 

65 


72  EMANCIPATION — BLACK   AND  WHITE  ill 

exceptions,  girls  have  been  educated  either  to  be 
drudges,  or  toys,  beneath  man ;  or  a  sort  of  angels 
above  him  ;  the  highest  ideal  aimed  at  oscillating 
between  Clarchen  and  Beatrice.  The  possibility 
that  the  ideal  of  womanhood  lies  neither  in  the 
fair  saint,  nor  in  the  fair  sinner ;  that  the  female 
type  of  character  is  neither  better  nor  worse  than 
the  male,  but  only  weaker ;  that  women  are 
meant  neither  to  be  men's  guides  nor  their  play- 
things, but  their  comrades,  their  fellows,  and  their 
equals,  so  far  as  Nature  puts  no  bar  to  that 
equality,  does  not  seem  to  have  entered  into  the 
minds  of  those  who  have  had  the  conduct  of  the 
education  of  girls. 

If  the  present  system  of  female  education 
stands  self-condemned,  as  inherently  absurd ;  and 
if  that  which  we  have  just  indicated  is  the  true 
position  of  woman,  what  is  the  first  step  towards 
a  better  state  of  things  ?  We  reply,  emancipate 
girls.  Recognise  the  fact  that  they  share  the 
senses,  perceptions,  feelings,  reasoning  powers, 
emotions,  of  boys,  and  that  the  mind  of  the 
average  girl  is  less  different  from  that  of  the 
average  boy,  than  the  mind  of  one  boy  is  from 
that  of  another;  so  that  whatever  argument 
justifies  a  given  education  for  all  boys,  justifies  its 
application  to  girls  as  well.  So  far  from  imposing 
artificial  restrictions  upon  the  acquirement  of 
knowledge  by  women,  throw  every  facility  in  their 


HI  EMANCIPATION — BLACK   AND   WHITE          73 

way.  Let  our  Faustinas,  if  they  will,  toil  through 
the  whole  round  of 

"  Juristerei  und  Medizin, 
Und  leider  !  auch  Philosophie." 

Let  us  have  "  sweet  girl  graduates  "  by  all  means. 
They  will  be  none  the  less  sweet  for  a  little 
wisdom  ;  and  the  "  golden  hair  "  will  not  curl  less 
gracefully  outside  the  head  by  reason  of  there 
being  brains  within.  Nay,  if  obvious  practical 
difficulties  can  be  overcome,  let  those  women  who 
feel  inclined  to  do  so  descend  into  the  gladiatorial 
arena  of  life,  not  merely  in  the  guise  of  rctiarice, 
as  heretofore,  but  as  bold  sicarice,  breasting  the 
open  fray.  Let  them,  if  they  so  please,  become 
merchants,  barristers,  politicians.  Let  them  have 
a  fair  field,  but  let  them  understand,  as  the 
necessary  correlative,  that  they  are  to  have  no 
favour.  Let  Nature  alone  sit  high  above  the  lists, 
"  rain  influence  and  judge  the  prize." 

And  the  result  ?  For  our  parts,  though  loth  to 
prophesy,  we  believe  it  will  be  that  of  other 
emancipations.  Women  will  find  their  place,  and 
it  will  neither  be  that  in  which  they  have  been 
held,  nor  that  to  which  some  of  them  aspire. 
Nature's  old  salique  law  will  not  be  repealed,  and 
no  change  of  dynasty  will  be  effected.  The  big 
chests,  the  massive  brains,  the  vigorous  muscles 
and  stout  frames  of  the  best  men  will  carry  the 
day,  whenever  it  is  worth  their  while  to  contest 


74  EMANCIPATION — BLACK   AND  WHITE  m 

tlie  prizes  of  life  with  the  best  women.  And  the 
hardship  of  it  is,  that  the  very  improvement  of 
the  women  will  lessen  their  chances.  Better 
mothers  will  bring  forth  better  sons,  and  the 
impetus  gained  by  the  one  sex  will  be  transmitted, 
in  the  next  generation,  to  the  other.  The  most 
Darwinian  of  theorists  will  not  venture  to  pro- 
pound the  doctrine,  that  the  physical  disabilities 
under  which  women  have  hitherto  laboured  in 
the  struggle  for  existence  with  men  are  likely  to 
be  removed  by  even  the  most  skilfully  conducted 
process  of  educational  selection. 

We  are,  indeed,  fully  prepared  to  believe  that 
the  bearing  of  children  may,  and  ought,  to  become 
as  free  from  danger  and  long  disability  to  the 
civilised  woman  as  it  is  to  the  savage ;  nor  is  it 
improbable  that,  as  society  advances  towards  its 
right  organisation,  motherhood  will  occupy  a  less 
space  of  woman's  life  than  it  has  hitherto  done. 
But  still,  unless  the  human  species  is  to  come  to 
an  end  altogether — a  consummation  which  can 
hardly  be  desired  by  even  the  most  ardent  advo- 
cate of  "  women's  rights  " — somebody  must  be 
good  enough  to  take  the  trouble  and  responsibility 
of  annually  adding  to  the  world  exactly  as  many 
people  as  die  out  of  it.  In  consequence  of  some 
domestic  difficulties,  Sydney  Smith  is  said  to 
have  suggested  that  it  would  have  been  good  for 
the  human  race  had  the  model  offered  by  the  hive 
been  followed,  and  had  all  the  working  part  of  the 


Ill  EMANCIPATION — BLACK   AND   WHITE  75 

female  community  been  neuters.  Failing  any 
thorough-going  reform  of  this  kind,  we  see  nothing 
for  it  but  the  old  division  of  humanity  into  men 
potentially,  or  actually,  fathers,  and  women  poten- 
tially, if  not  actually,  mothers.  And  we  fear  that 
so  long  as  this  potential  motherhood  is  her  lot, 
woman  will  be  found  to  be  fearfully  weighted  in 
the  race  of  life. 

The  duty  of  man  is  to  see  that  not  a  grain  i? 
piled  upon  that  load   beyond    what  Nature  im 
poses ;  that  injustice  is  not  added  to  inequality. 


IV 


A    LIBERAL  EDUCATION;  AND  WHERE 
TO  FIND  IT 

[1868.] 

THE  business  which  the  South  London  Working 
Men's  College  has  undertaken  is  a  great  work  ; 
indeed,  I  might  say,  that  Education,  with  which 
that  college  proposes  to  grapple,  is  the  greatest 
work  of  all  those  which  lie  ready  to  a  man's  hand 
just  at  present. 

And,  at  length,  this  fact  is  becoming  generally 
recognised.  You  cannot  go  anywhere  without 
hearing  a  buzz  of  more  or  less  confused  and 
contradictory  talk  on  this  subject — nor  can  you 
fail  to  notice  that,  in  one  point  at  any  rate,  there 
is  a  very  decided  advance  upon  like  discussions  in 
former  days.  Nobody  outside  the  agricultural 
interest  now  dares  to  say  that  education  is  a  bad 
thing.  If  any  representative  of  the  once  large 
and  powerful  party,  which,  in  former  days,  pro- 
claimed this  opinion,  still  exists  in  a  semi-fossil 


IY  A   LIBERAL   EDUCATION  77 

state,  he  keeps  his  thoughts  to  himself.  In  fact, 
there  is  a  chorus  of  voices,  almost  distressing  in 
their  harmony,  raised  in  favour  of  the  doctrine 
that  education  is  the  great  panacea  for  human 
troubles,  and  that,  if  the  country  is  not  shortly  to 
go  to  the  dogs,  everybody  must  be  educated. 

The  politicians  tells  us,  "  You  must  educate  the 
masses  because  they  are  going  to  be  masters/' 
The  clergy  join  in  the  cry  for  education,  for  they 
affirm  that  the  people  are  drifting  away  from 
church  and  chapel  into  the  broadest  infidelity. 
The  manufacturers  and  the  capitalists  swell  the 
chorus  lustily.  They  declare  that  ignorance 
makes  bad  workmen ;  that  England  will  soon  be 
unable  to  turn  out  cotton  goods,  or  steam  engines, 
cheaper  than  other  people ;  and  then,  Ichabod  ! 
Ichabod !  the  glory  will  be  departed  from  us. 
And  a  few  voices  are  lifted  up  in  favour  of  the 
doctrine  that  the  masses  should  be  educated 
because  they  are  men  and  women  with  unlimited 
capacities  of  being,  doing,  and  suffering,  and  that 
it  is  as  true  now,  as  ever  it  was,  that  the  people 
perish  for  lack  of  knowledge. 

These  members  of  the  minority,  with  whom  I 
confess  I  have  a  good  deal  of  sympathy,  are 
doubtful  whether  any  of  the  other  reasons  urged 
in  favour  of  the  education  of  the  people  are  of 
much  value — whether,  indeed,  some  of  them  are 
based  upon  either  wise  or  noble  grounds  of  action. 
They  question  if  it  be  wise  to  tell  people  that  you 


78  A   LIBEKAL   EDUCATION;  IV 

will  do  for  them,  out  of  fear  of  their  power,  what 
you  have  left  undone,  so  long  as  your  only  motive 
was  cornpassion  for  their  weakness  and  their  sor- 
rows. And,  if  ignorance  of  everything  which  it 
is  needful  a  ruler  should  know  is  likely  to  do  so 
much  harm  in  the  governing  classes  of  the  future, 
why  is  it,  they  ask  reasonably  enough,  that  such 
ignorance  in  the  governing  classes  of  the  past  has 
not  been  viewed  with  equal  horror  ? 

Compare  the  average  artisan  and  the  average 
country  squire,  and  it  may  be  doubted  if  you  will 
find  a  pin  to  choose  between  the  two  in  point  of 
ignorance,  class  feeling,  or  prejudice.  It  is  true 
that  the  ignorance  is  of  a  different  sort — that  the 
class  feeling  is  in  favour  of  a  different  class — 
and  that  the  prejudice  has  a  distinct  savour  of 
wrong-headedness  in  each  case — but  it  is  question- 
able if  the  one  is  either  a  bit  better,  or  a  bit  worse, 
than  the  other.  The  old  protectionist  theory  is 
the  doctrine  of  trades  unions  as  applied  by  the 
squires,  and  the  modern  trades  unionism  is  the 
doctrine  of  the  squires  applied  by  the  artisans. 
Why  should  we  be  worse  off  under  one  regime  than 
under  the  other  ? 

Again,  this  sceptical  minority  asks  the  clergy  to 
think  whether  it  is  really  want  of  education  which 
keeps  the  masses  away  from  their  ministrations — 
whether  the  most  completely  educated  men  are 
not  as  open  to  reproach  on  this  score  as  the  work- 
men ;  and  whether,  perchance,  this  may  not  indi- 


IV  AND   WHERE   TO   FIND   IT  79 

cate  that  it  is  not  education  which  lies  at  the  bot- 
tom of  the  matter  ? 

Once  more,  these  people,  whom  there  is  no 
pleasing,  venture  to  doubt  whether  the  glory, 
which  rests  upon  being  able  to  undersell  all  the 
rest  of  the  world,  is  a  very  safe  kind  of  glory — 
whether  we  may  not  purchase  it  too  dear ;  especi- 
ally if  we  allow  education,  which  ought  to  be 
directed  to  the  making  of  men,  to  be  diverted 
into  a  process  of  manufacturing  human  tools, 
wonderfully  adroit  in  the  exercise  of  some  techni- 
cal industry,  but  good  for  nothing  else. 

And,  finally,  these  people  inquire  whether  it  is 
the  masses  alone  who  need  a  reformed  and  im- 
proved education.  They  ask  whether  the  richest 
of  our  public  schools  might  not  well  be  made  to 
supply  knowledge,  as  well  as  gentlemanly  habits, 
a  strong  class  feeling,  and  eminent  proficiency  in 
cricket.  They  seem  to  think  that  the  noble  foun- 
dations of  our  old  universities  are  hardly  fulfilling 
their  functions  in  their  present  posture  of  half- 
clerical  seminaries,  half  racecourses,  where  men 
are  trained  to  win  a  senior  wranglership,  or  a 
double-first,  as  horses  are  trained  to  win  a  cup, 
with  as  little  reference  to  the  needs  of  after-life  in 
the  case  of  the  man  as  in  that  of  the  racer.  And, 
while  as  zealous  for  education  as  the  rest,  they 
affirm  that,  if  the  education  of  the  richer  classes 
were  such  as  to  fit  them  to  be  the  leaders  and  the 
governors  of  the  poorer ;  and,  if  the  education  of  the 


80  A  LIBERAL   EDUCATION;  IV 

poorer  classes  were  such  as  to  enable  them  to  appre- 
ciate really  wise  guidance  and  good  governance,  the 
politicians  need  not  fear  mob-law,  nor  the  clergy 
lament  their  want  of  flocks,  nor  the  capitalists  prog- 
nosticate the  annihilation  of  the  prosperity  of  the 
country. 

Such  is  the  diversity  of  opinion  upon  the  why 
and  the  wherefore  of  education.  And  my  hearers 
will  be  prepared  to  expect  that  the  practical  recom- 
mendations which  are  put  forward  are  not  less 
discordant.  There  is  a  loud  cry  for  compulsory 
education.  We  English,  in  spite  of  constant  ex- 
perience to  the  contrary,  preserve  a  touching  faith 
in  the  efficacy  of  acts  of  Parliament ;  and  I  believe 
we  should  have  compulsory  education  in  the  course 
of  next  session,  if  there  were  the  least  probability 
that  half  a  dozen  leading  statesmen  of  different 
parties  would  agree  what  that  education  should  be. 

Some  hold  that  education  without  theology  13 
worse  than  none.  Others  maintain,  quite  as 
strongly,  that  education  with  theology  is  in  the 
same  predicament.  But  this  is  certain,  that  those 
who  hold  the  first  opinion  can  by  no  means  agree 
what  theology  should  be  taught ;  and  that  those 
who  maintain  the  second  are  in  a  small  minority. 

At  any  rate  "  make  people  learn  to  read,  write, 
and  cipher,"  say  a  great  many ;  and  the  advice  is 
undoubtedly  sensible  as  far  as  it  goes.  But,  as 
has  happened  to  me  in  former  days,  those  who,  in 
despair  of  getting  anything  better,  advocate  this 


IV  AND   WHERE   TO   FIND   IT  81 

measure,  are  met  with  the  objection  that  it  is  very 
like  making  a  child  practise  the  use  of  a  knife, 
fork,  and  spoon,  without  giving  it  a  particle  of 
meat.  I  really  don't  know  what  reply  is  to  be 
made  to  such  an  objection. 

But  it  would  be  unprofitable  to  spend  more 
time  in  disentangling,  or  rather  in  showing  up 
the  knots  in,  the  ravelled  skeins  of  our  neighbours. 
Much  more  to  the  purpose  is  it  to  ask  if  we  possess 
any  clue  of  our  own  which  may  guide  us  among 
these  entanglements.  And  by  way  of  a  beginning, 
let  us  ask  ourselves — What  is  education  ?  Above 
all  things,  what  is  our  ideal  of  a  thoroughly 
liberal  education  ? — of  that  education  which,  if  we 
could  begin  life  again,  we  would  give  ourselves — 
of  that  education  which,  if  we  could  mould  the  fates 
to  our  own  will,  we  would  give  our  children  ? 
Well,  I  know  not  what  may  be  your  conceptions 
upon  this  matter,  but  I  will  tell  you  mine,  and  I 
hope  I  shall  find  that  our  views  are  not  very 
discrepant. 

Suppose  it  were  perfectly  certain  that  the  life 
and  fortune  of  every  one  of  us  would,  one  day  or 
other,  depend  upon  his  winning  or  losing  a  game 
at  chess.  Don't  you  think  that  we  should  all 
consider  it  to  be  a  primary  duty  to  learn  at  least 
the  names  and  the  moves  of  the  pieces ;  to  have  a 
notion  of  a  gambit,  and  a  keen  eye  for  all  the 
means  of  giving  and  getting  out  of  check  ?  Do 


82  A  LIBERAL   EDUCATION;  IV 

you  not  think  that  we  should  look  with  a  disap- 
probation amounting  to  scorn,  upon  the  father  who 
allowed  his  son,  or  the  state  which  allowed  its 
members,  to  grow  up  without  knowing  a  pawn 
from  a  knight  ? 

Yet  it  is  a  very  plain  and  elementary  truth,  that 
the  life,  the  fortune,  and  the  happiness  of  every 
one  of  us,  and,  more  or  less,  of  those  who  are  con- 
nected with  us,  do  depend  upon  our  knowing 
something  of  the  rules  of  a  game  infinitely  more 
difficult  and  complicated  than  chess.  It  is  a  game 
which  has  been  played  for  untold  ages,  every  man 
and  woman  of  us  being  one  of  the  two  players  in  a 
game  of  his  or  her  own.  The  chess-board  is  the 
world,  the  pieces  are  the  phenomena  of  the 
universe,  the  rules  of  the  game  are  what  we  call 
the  laws  of  Nature.  The  player  on  the  other  side 
is  hidden  from  us.  We  know  that  his  play  is 
always  fair,  just  and  patient.  But  also  we  know, 
to  our  cost,  that  he  never  overlooks  a  mistake,  or 
makes  the  smallest  allowance  for  ignorance.  To 
the  man  who  plays -well,  the  highest  stakes  are 
paid,  with  that  sort  of  overflowing  generosity  with 
which  the  strong  shows  delight  in  strength.  And 
one  who  plays  ill  is  checkmated — without  haste, 
but  without  remorse. 

My  metaphor  will  remind  some  of  you 
of  the  famous  picture  in  which  Retzsch  has 
depicted  Satan  playing  at  chess  with  man  for  his 
soul.  Substitute  for  the  mocking  fiend  in  that 


IV  AND   WHERE   TO   FIND   IT  83 

picture  a  calm,  strong  angel  who  is  playing  for 
love,  as  we  say,  and  would  rather  lose  than  win — 
and  I  should  accept  it  as  an  image  of  human  life. 

Well,  what  I  mean  by  Education  is  learning  the 
rules  of  this  mighty  game.  In  other  words,  educa- 
tion is  the  instruction  of  the  intellect  in  the  laws 
of  Nature,  under  which  name  I  include  not 
merely  things  and  their  forces,  but  men  and  their 
ways ;  and  the  fashioning  of  the  affections  and  of 
the  will  into  an  earnest  and  loving  desire  to  move 
in  harmony  with  those  laws.  For  me,  education 
means  neither  more  nor  less  than  this.  Anything 
which  professes  to  call  itself  education  must  be 
tried  by  this  standard,  and  if  it  fails  to  stand  the 
test,  I  will  not  call  it  education,  whatever  may  be 
the  force  of  authority,  or  of  numbers,  upon  the 
other  side. 

It  is  important  to  remember  that,  in  strictness, 
there  is  no  such  thing  as  an  uneducated  man. 
Take  an  extreme  case.  Suppose  that  an  adult 
man,  in  the  full  vigour  of  his  faculties,  could  be 
suddenly  placed  in  the  world,  as  Adam  is  said  to 
have  been,  and  then  left  to  do  as  he  best  might. 
How  long  would  he  be  left  uneducated  ?  Not  five 
minutes.  Nature  would  begin  to  teach  him, 
through  the  eye,  the  ear,  the  touch,  the  properties 
of  objects.  Pain  and  pleasure  would  be  at  his 
elbow  telling  him  to  do  this  and  avoid  that ;  and 
by  slow  degrees  the  man  would  receive  an  educa- 
tion which,  if  narrow,  would  be  thorough,  real, 


84  A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION;  iv 

and  adequate  to  his  circumstances,  though  there 
would  be  no  extras  and  very  few  accomplish- 
ments. 

And  if  to  this  solitary  man  entered  a  second 
Adam,  or,  better  still,  an  Eve,  a  new  and  greater 
world,  that  of  social  and  moral  phenomena,  would 
be  revealed.  Joys  and  woes,  compared  with  which 
all  others  might  seem  but  faint  shadows,  would 
spring  from  the  new  relations.  Happiness  and 
sorrow  would  take  the  place  of  the  coarser 
monitors,  pleasure  and  pain;  but  conduct  would 
still  be  shaped  by  the  observation  of  the  natural 
consequences  of  actions  ;  or,  in  other  words,  by  the 
laws  of  the  nature  of  man. 

To  every  one  of  us  the  world  was  once  as  fresh 
and  new  as  to  Adam.  And  then,  long  before  we 
were  susceptible  of  any  other  mode  of  instruction, 
Nature  took  us  in  hand,  and  every  minute  of 
waking  life  brought  its  educational  influence, 
shaping  our  actions  into  rough  accordance  with 
Nature's  laws,  so  that  we  might  not  be  ended 
untimely  by  too  gross  disobedience.  Nor  should  I 
speak  of  this  process  of  education  as  past  for  any 
one,  be  he  as  old  as  he  may.  For  every  man  the 
world  is  as  fresh  as  it  was  at  the  first  day,  and  as 
full  of  untold  novelties  for  him  who  has  the  eyes 
to  see  them.  And  Nature  is  still  continuing  her 
patient  education  of  us  in  that  great  university,  the 
universe,  of  which  we  arc  all  members — Nature 
having  no  Test- Acts. 


TV  AND   WHERE   TO   FIND   IT  85 

Those  who  take  honours  in  Nature's  university, 
who  learn  the  laws  which  govern  men  and  things 
and  obey  them,  are  the  really  great  and  successful 
men  in  this  world.  The  great  mass  of  mankind 
are  the  "  Poll,"  who  pick  up  just  enough  to  get 
through  without  much  discredit.  Those  who  won't 
learn  at  all  are  plucked  ;  and  then  you  can't  come 
up  again.  Nature's  pluck  means  extermination. 

Thus  the  question  of  compulsory  education  is 
settled  so  far  as  Nature  is  concerned.  Her  bill  on 
that  question  was  framed  and  passed  long  ago. 
But,  like  all  compulsory  legislation,  that  of  Nature 
is  harsh  and  wasteful  in  its  operation.  Ignorance 
is  visited  as  sharply  as  wilful  disobedience — incapa- 
city meets  with  the  same  punishment  as  crime. 
Nature's  discipline  is  not  even  a  word  and  a  blow, 
and  the  blow  first ;  but  the  blow  without  the  word. 
It  is  left  to  you  to  find  out  why  your  ears  are 
boxed. 

The  object  of  what  we  commonly  call  education — 
that  education  in  which  man  intervenes  and  which 
I  shall  distinguish  as  artificial  education — is  to 
make  good  these  defects  in  Nature's  methods;  to 
prepare  the  child  to  receive  Nature's  education, 
neither  incapably  nor  ignorantly,  nor  with  wilful 
disobedience;  and  to  understand  the  preliminary 
symptoms  of  her  pleasure,  without  waiting  for  the 
box  on  the  ear.  In  short,  all  artificial  education 
ought  to  be  an  anticipation  of  natural  education. 
And  a  liberal  education  is  an  artificial  education 


86  A  LIBERAL   EDUCATION  ;  TT> 

which  has  not  only  prepared  a  man  to  escape  the 
great  evils  of  disobedience  to  natural  laws,  but  has 
trained  him  to  appreciate  and  to  seize  upon  the  re- 
wards, which  Nature  scatters  with  as  free  a  hand 
as  her  penalties. 

That  man,  I  think,  has  had  a  liberal  education 
who  has  been  so  trained  in  youth  that  his  body  is 
the  ready  servant  of  his  will,  and  does  with  ease 
and  pleasure  all  the  work  that,  as  a  mechanism,  it 
is  capable  of ;  whose  intellect  is  a  clear,  cold,  logic 
engine,  with  all  its  parts  of  equal  strength,  and  in 
smooth  working  order ;  ready,  like  a  steam  engine, 
to  be  turned  to  any  kind  of  work,  and  spin  the 
gossamers  as  well  as  forge  the  anchors  of  the  mind ; 
whose  mind  is  stored  with  a  knowledge  of  the 
great  and  fundamental  truths  of  Nature  and  of  the 
laws  of  her  operations ;  one  who,  no  stunted  ascetic, 
is  full  of  life  and  fire,  but  whose  passions  are  trained 
to  come  to  heel  by  a  vigorous  will,  the  servant  of 
a  tender  conscience ;  who  has  learned  to  love  all 
beauty,  whether  of  Nature  or  of-  art,  to  hate  all 
vileness,  and  to  respect  others  as  himself. 

Such  an  one  and  no  other,  I  conceive,  has  had  a 
liberal  education  ;  for  he  is,  as  completely  as  a  man 
can  be,  in  harmony  with  Nature.  He  will  make 
the  best  of  her,  and  she  of  him.  They  will  get  on 
together  rarely  :  she  as  his  ever  beneficent  mother ; 
he  as  her  mouthpiece,  her  conscious  self,  her  minis- 
ter $nd  interpreter. 

Where  is  such  an  education  as  this  to  be  had  ? 


TV  AND   WHERE   TO   FIND   IT  87 

Where  is  there  any  approximation  to  it?  Has 
any  one  tried  to  found  such  an  education  ? 
Looking  over  the  length  and  breadth  of  these 
islands,  I  am  afraid  that  all  these  questions 
must  receive  a  negative  answer.  Consider  our 
primary  schools  and  what  is  taught  in  them.  A 
child  learns : — 

1.  To  read,  write,  and  cipher,  more  or  less  well ; 
but  in  a  .very  large  proportion  of  cases  not  so  well 
as  to  take  pleasure  in  reading,  or  to  be  able  to  write 
the  commonest  letter  properly. 

2.  A  quantity  of  dogmatic  theology,  of  which 
the  child,  nine  times  out  of  ten,  understands  next 
to  nothing. 

3.  Mixed  up  with  this,  so  as  to  seem  to  stand  or 
fall  with  it,  a  few  of  the  broadest  and  simplest 
principles  of  morality.     This,  to  my  mind,  is  much 
as  if  a  man  of  science  should  make  the  story  of  the 
fall  of  the  apple  in  Newton's  garden  an  integral 
part  of  the  doctrine  of  gravitation,  and  teach  it 
as  of  equal  authority  with  the  law  of  the  inverse 
squares. 

4.  A  good  deal  of  Jewish  history  and  Syrian 
geography,  and  perhaps  a  little  something  about 
English  history  and  the  geography  of  the  child's 
own  country.      But  I  doubt  if  there  is  a  primary 
school  in  England  in  which  hangs  a  map  of  the 
hundred  in  which  the  village   lies,  so   that   the 
children  may  be  practically  taught  by  it  what  a 
map  means. 

66 


88  A   LIBERAL   EDUCATION;  TV 

5.  A  certain  amount  of  regularity,  attentive 
obedience,  respect  for  others :  obtained  by  fear,  if 
the  master  be  incompetent  or  foolish  ;  by  love  and 
reverence,  if  he  be  wise. 

So  far  as  this  school  course  embraces  a  training 
in  the  theory  and  practice  of  obedience  to  the 
moral  laws  of  Nature,  I  gladly  admit,  not  only 
that  it  contains  a  valuable  educational  element,  but 
that,  so  far,  it  deals  with  the  most  valuable  and 
important  part  of  all  education.  Yet,  contrast 
what  is  done  in  this  direction  with  what  might  be 
done ;  with  the  time  given  to  matters  of  compara- 
tively no  importance ;  with  the  absence  of  any 
attention  to  things  of  the  highest  moment;  and 
one  is  tempted  to  think  of  Falstaffs  bill  and  "  the 
halfpenny  worth  of  bread  to  all  that  quantity  of 
sack." 

Let  us  consider  what  a  child  thus  "  educated  " 
knows,  and  what  it  does  not  know.  Begin  with 
the  most  important  topic  of  all — morality,  as  the 
guide  of  conduct.  The  child  knows  well  enough 
that  some  acts  meet  with  approbation  and  some 
with  disapprobation.  But  it  has  never  heard  that 
there  lies  in  the  nature  of  things  a  reason  for  every 
moral  law,  as  cogent  and  as  well  denned  as  that 
which  underlies  every  physical  law  ;  that  stealing 
and  lying  are  just  as  certain  to  be  followed  by  evil 
consequences,  as  putting  your  hand  in  the  fire,  or 
jumping  out  of  a  garret  window.  Again,  though 
the  scholar  may  have  been  made  acquainted,  in 


IV  AND   WHERE   TO   FIND   IT  89 

dogmatic  fashion,  with  the  broad  laws  of  morality, 
he  has  had  no  training  in  the  application  of  those 
laws  to  the  difficult  problems  which  result  from  the 
complex  conditions  of  modern  civilisation.  Would 
it  not  be  very  hard  to  expect  any  one  to  solve  a 
problem  in  conic  sections  who  had  merely  been 
taught  the  axioms  and  definitions  of  mathematical 
science  ? 

A  workman  has  to  bear  hard  labour,  and  perhaps 
privation,  while  he  sees  others  rolling  in  wealth, 
and  feeding  their  dogs  with  what  would  keep  his 
children  from  starvation.  Would  it  not  be  well  to 
have  helped  that  man  to  calm  the  natural  prompt- 
ings of  discontent  by  showing  him,  in  his  youth, 
the  necessary  connection  of  the  moral  law  which 
prohibits  stealing  with  the  stability  of  society — by 
proving  to  him,  once  for  all,  that  it  is  better  for  his 
own  people,  better  for  himself,  better  for  future 
generations,  that  he  should  starve  than  steal  ?  If 
you  have  no  foundation  of  knowledge,  or  habit  of 
thought,  to  work  upon,  what  chance  have  you  of 
persuading  a  hungry  man  that  a  capitalist  is  not  a 
thief  "  with  a  circumbendibus  ?  "  And  if  he 
honestly  believes  that,  of  what  avail  is  it  to  quote 
the  commandment  against  stealing,  when  he  pro- 
poses to  make  the  capitalist  disgorge  ? 

Again,  the  child  learns  absolutely  nothing  of 
the  history  or  the  political  organisation  of  his  own 
country.  His  general  impression  is,  that  every- 
thing of  much  importance  happened  a  very  long 


90  A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION  ;  iv 

while  ago ;  and  that  the  Queen  and  the  gentlefolks 
govern  the  country  much  after  the  fashion  of 
King  David  and  the  elders  and  nohles  of  Israel — 
his  sole  models.  Will  you  give  a  man  with  this 
much  information  a  vote  ?  In  easy  times  he  sells 
it  for  a  pot  of  beer.  Why  should  he  not  ?  It  is 
of  about  as  much  use  to  him  as  a  chignon,  and  he 
knows  as  much  what  to  do  with  it,  for  any  other 
purpose.  In  bad  times,  on  the  contrary,  he  applies 
his  simple  theory  of  government,  and  believes  that 
his  rulers  are  the  cause  of  his  sufferings — a  belief 
which  sometimes  bears  remarkable  practical 
fruits. 

Least  of  all,  does  the  child  gather  from  this 
primary  "  education  "  of  ours  a  conception  of  the 
laws  of  the  physical  world,  or  of  the  relations  of 
cause  and  effect  therein.  And  this  is  the  more  to 
be  lamented,  as  the  poor  are  especially  exposed  to 
physical  evils,  and  are  more  interested  in  removing 
them  than  any  other  class  of  the  community.  If 
any  one  is  concerned  in  knowing  the  ordinary  laws 
of  mechanics  one  would  think  it  is  the  hand- 
labourer,  whose  daily  toil  lies  among  levers  and 
pulleys  ;  or  among  the  other  implements  of  artisan 
work.  And  if  any  one  is  interested  in  the  laws  of 
health,  it  is  the  poor  workman,  whose  strength  is 
wasted  by  ill-prepared  food,  whose  health  is  sapped 
by  bad  ventilation  and  bad  drainage,  and  half 
whose  children  are  massacred  by  disorders  which 
might  be  prevented.  Not  only  does  our  present 


IV  AND   WHERE   TO   FIND   IT  91 

primary  education  carefully  abstain  from  hinting 
to  the  workman  that  some  of  his  greatest  evils 
are  traceable  to  mere  physical  agencies,  which 
could  be  removed  by  energy,  patience,  and  frugal- 
ity ;  but  it  does  worse — it  renders  him,  so  far  as  it 
can,  deaf  to  those  who  could  help  him,  and  tries 
to  substitute  an  Oriental  submission  to  what 
is  falsely  declared  to  be  the  will  of  God,  for 
his  natural  tendency  to  strive  after  a  better 
condition. 

What  wonder,  then,  if  very  recently  an  appeal 
has  been  made  to  statistics  for  the  profoundly  fool- 
ish purpose  of  showing  that  education  is  of  no  good 
• — that  it  diminishes  neither  misery  nor  crime 
among  the  masses  of  mankind  ?  I  reply,  why 
should  the  thing  which  has  been  called  education 
do  either  the  one  or  the  other  ?  If  I  am  a  knave  or 
a  fool,  teaching  me  to  read  and  write  won't  make 
me  less  of  either  one  or  the  other — unless  some- 
body shows  me  how  to  put  my  reading  and  writing 
to  wise  and  good  purposes. 

Suppose  any  one  were  to  argue  that  medicine 
is  of  no  use,  because  it  could  be  proved  statistic- 
ally, that  the  percentage  of  deaths  was  just  the 
same  among  people  who  had  been  taught  how  to 
open  a  medicine  chest,  and  among  those  who  did 
not  so  much  as  know  the  key  by  sight.  The 
argument  is  absurd ;  but  it  is  not  more  prepos- 
terous than  that  against  which  I  am  contending. 
The  only  medicine  for  suffering,  crime,  and  al] 


92  A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION;  IV 

the  other  woes  of  mankind,  is  wisdom.  Teach  a 
man  to  read  and  write,  and  you  have  put  into  his 
hands  the  great  keys  of  the  wisdom  box.  But  it 
is  quite  another  matter  whether  he  ever  opens  the 
box  or  not.  And  he  is  as  likely  to  poison  as  to 
cure  himself,  if,  without  guidance,  he  swallows  the 
first  drug  that  comes  to  hand.  In  these  times  a 
man  may  as  well  be  purblind,  as  unable  to  read — 
lame,  as  unable  to  write.  But  I  protest  that,  if  I 
thought  the  alternative  were  a  necessary  one,  I 
would  rather  that  the  children  of  the  poor  should 
grow  up  ignorant  of  both  these  mighty  arts,  than 
that  they  should  remain  ignorant  of  that  know- 
ledge to  which  these  arts  are  means. 

It  may  be  said  that  all  these  animadversions 
may  apply  to  primary  schools,  but  that  the  higher 
schools,  at  any  rate,  must  be  allowed  to  give  a 
liberal  education.  In  fact  they  professedly  sacrifice 
everything  else  to  this  object. 

Let  us  inquire  into  this  matter.  What  do  the 
higher  schools,  those  to  which  the  great  middle 
class  of  the  country  sends  its  children,  teach,  over 
and  above  the  instruction  given  in  the  primary 
schools  ?  There  is  a  little  more  reading  and  writing 
of  English.  But,  for  all  that,  every  one  knows  that 
it  is  a  rare  thing  to  find  a  boy  of  the  middle  or 
upper  classes  who  can  read  aloud  decently,  or  who 
can  put  his  thoughts  on  paper  in  clear  and  gram- 
matical (to  say  nothing  of  good  or  elegant)  language, 


IV  AND   WHERE   TO  FIND   IT  93 

The  "  ciphering  "  of  the  lower  schools  expands  into 
elementary  mathematics  in  the  higher;  into 
arithmetic,  with  a  little  algebra,  a  little  Euclid. 
But  I  doubt  if  one  boy  in  five  hundred  has  ever 
heard  the  explanation  of  a  rule  of  arithmetic,  or 
knows  his  Euclid  otherwise  than  by  rote. 

Of  theology,  the  middle  class  schoolboy  gets 
rather  less  than  poorer  children,  less  absolutely 
and  less  relatively,  because  there  are  so  many 
other  claims  upon  his  attention.  I  venture  to  say 
that,  in  the  great  majority  of  cases,  his  ideas  on 
this  subject  when  he  leaves  school  are  of  the  most 
shadowy  and  vague  description,  and  associated  with 
painful  impressions  of  the  weary  hours  spent  in 
learning  collects  and  catechism  by  heart. 

Modern  geography,  modern  history,  modern 
literature ;  the  English  language  as  a  language ; 
the  whole  circle  of  the  sciences,  physical,  moral 
and  social,  are  even  more  completely  ignored  in 
the  higher  t-han  in  the  lower  schools.  Up  till 
within  a  few  years  back,  a  boy  might  have  passed 
through  any  one  of  the  great  public  schools  with 
the  greatest  distinction  and  credit,  and  might 
•  never  so  much  as  have  heard  of  one  of  the  subjects 
I  have  just  mentioned.  He  might  never  have 
heard  that  the  earth,  goes  round  the  sun ;  that 
England  underwent  a  great  revolution  in  1688, 
and  France  another  in  1789  ;  that  there  once  lived 
certain  notable  men  called  Chaucer,  Shakespeare, 
Milton,  Y  oltair o,  Goethe,  Schiller.  The  first  might 


94  A  LIBERAL   EDUCATION;  Iv 

be  a  German  and  the  last  an  Englishman  for  any- 
thing he  could  tell  you  to  the  contrary.  And  as 
for  Science,  the  only  idea  the  word  would 
suggest  to  his  mind  would  be  dexterity  in  box- 
ing. 

I  have  said  that  this  was  the  state  of  things  a 
few  years  back,  for  the  sake  of  the  few  righteous 
who  are  to  be  found  among  the  educational  cities 
of  the  plain.  But  I  would  not  have  you  too 
sanguine  about  the  result,  if  you  sound  the  minds 
of  the  existing  generation  of  public  schoolboys,  on 
such  topics  as  those  I  have  mentioned. 

Now  let  us  pause  to  consider  this  wonderful 
state  of  affairs ;  for  the  time  will  come  when 
Englishmen  will  quote  it  as  the  stock  example  of 
the  stolid  stupidity  of  their  ancestors  in  the  nine- 
teenth century.  The  most  thoroughly  commercial 
people,  the  greatest  voluntary  wanderers  and 
colonists  the  world  has  ever  seen,  are  precisely  the 
middle  classes  of  this  country.  If  there  be  a 
people  which  has  been  busy  making  history  on  the 
great  scale  for  the  last  three  hundred  years — and 
the  most  profoundly  interesting  history — history 
which,  if  it  happened  to  be  that  of  Greece  or  Rome, 
we  should  study  with  avidity — it  is  the  English. 
If  there  be  a  people  which,  during  the  same  period, 
has  developed  a  remarkable  literature,  it  is  our 
own.  If  there  be  a  nation  whose  prosperity 
depends  absolutely  and  wholly  upon  their  mastery 
over  the  forces  of  Nature,  upon  their  intelligent 


IV  AND   WHERE   TO   FIND   IT  95 

apprehension  of,  and  obedience  to  the  laws  of  the 
creation  and  distribution  of  wealth,  and  of  the 
stable  equilibrium  of  the  forces  of  society,  it  is 
precisely  this  nation.  And  yet  this  is  what  these 
wonderful  people  tell  their  sons  : — "  At  the  cost  of 
from  one  to  two  thousand  pounds  of  our  hard- 
earned  money,  we  devote  twelve  of  the  most 
precious  years  of  your  lives  to  school.  There  you 
shall  toil,  or  be  supposed  to  toil ;  but  there  you 
shall  not  learn  one  single  thing  of  all  those  you 
will  most  want  to  know  directly  you  leave  school 
and  enter  upon  the  practical  business  of  life.  You 
will  in  all  probability  go  into  business,  but  you 
shall  not  know  where,  or  how,  any  article  of  com- 
merce is  produced,  or  the  difference  between  an 
export  or  an  import,  or  the  meaning  of  the  word 
"  capital."  You  will  very  likely  settle  in  a  colony, 
but  you  shall  not  know  whether  Tasmania  is  part 
of  New  South  Wales,  or  vice  versd. 

"Very  probably  you  may  become  a  manufac- 
turer, but  you  shall  not  be  provided  with  the 
means  of  understanding  the  working  of  one  of 
your  own  steam-engines,  or  the  nature  of  the  raw 
products  you  employ  ;  and,  when  you  are  asked  to 
buy  a  patent,  you  shall  not  have  the  slightest 
means  of  judging  whether  the  inventor  is  an  im- 
postor who  is  contravening  the  elementary  prin- 
ciples of  science,  or  a  man  who  will  make  you  as 
rich  as  Croesus. 

"You  will   very  likely  get  into  the  House    of 


96  A  LIBERAL   EDUCATION;  IV 

Commons.  You  will  have  to  take  your  shaie  /n 
making  laws  which  may  prove  a  blessing  or  a 
curse  to  millions  of  men.  But  you  shall  not  hear 
one  word  respecting  the  political  organisation  of 
your  country ;  the  meaning  of  the  controversy 
between  free-traders  and  protectionists  shall  never 
have  been  mentioned  to  you  ;  you  shall  not  so 
much  as  know  that  there  are  such  things  as 
economical  laws. 

"  The  mental  power  which  will  be  of  most  im- 
portance in  your  daily  life  will  be  the  power  of 
seeing  things  as  they  are  without  regard  to 
authority ;  and  of  drawing  accurate  general  con- 
clusions from  particular  facts.  But  at  school  and 
at  college  you  shall  know  of  no  source  of  truth  but 
authority;  nor  exercise  your  reasoning  faculty  upon 
anything  but  deduction  from  -that  which  is  laid 
down  by  authority. 

"  You  will  have  to  weary  your  soul  with  work, 
and  many  a  time  eat  your  bread  in  sorrow  and 
in  bitterness,  and  you  shall  not  have  learned  to 
take  refuge  in  the  great  source  of  pleasure 
without  alloy,  the  serene  resting-place  for  worn 
human  nature, — the  world  of  art." 

Said  I  not  rightly  that  we  are  a  wonderful 
people  ?  I  am  quite  prepared  to  allow,  that 
education  entirely  devoted  to  these  omitted  sub- 
jects might  not  be  a  completely  liberal  education. 
But  is  an  education  which  ignores  them  all  a 
liberal  education  ?  Nay,  is  it  too  much  to  say 


IT  AND   WHERE   TO   FIND  IT  97 

that  the  education  which  should  embrace  these 
subjects  and  no  others  would  be  a  real  education, 
though  an  incomplete  one ;  while  an  education 
which  omits  them  is  really  not  an  education  at 
all,  but  a  more  or  less  useful  course  of  intellectual 
gymnastics  ? 

For  what  does  the  middle-class  school  put  in 
the  place  of  all  these  things  which  are  left  out  ? 
It  substitutes  what  is  usually  comprised  under 
the  compendious  title  of  the  "  classics  " — that  is 
to  say,  the  languages,  the  literature,  and  the 
history  of  the  ancient  Greeks  and  Romans,  and  the 
geography  of  so  much  of  the  world  as  was  known 
to  these  two  great  nations  of  antiquity.  Now,  do 
not  expect  me  to  depreciate  the  earnest  and 
enlightened  pursuit  of  classical  learning.  I  have 
not  the  least  desire  to  speak  ill  of  such  occupations, 
nor  any  sympathy  with  those  who  run  them  down. 
On  the  contrary,  if  my  opportunities  had  lain  in 
that  direction,  there  is  no  investigation  into  which 
I  could  have  thrown  myself  with  greater  delight 
than  that  of  antiquity. 

What  science  can  present  greater  attractions 
than  philology  ?  How  can  a  lover  of  literary 
excellence  fail  to  rejoice  in  the  ancient  master- 
pieces ?  And  with  what  consistency  could  I, 
whose  business  lies  so  much  in  the  attempt  to  de- 
cipher the  past,  and  to  build  up  intelligible  forms 
out  of  the  scattered  fragments  of  long-extinct 
beings,  fail  to  take  a  sympathetic,  though  an 


9S  A  LIBERAL   EDUCATION;  IV 

unlearned,  interest  in  the  labours  of  a  Niebuhr,  a 
Gibbon,  or  a  Grote  ?  Classical  history  is  a  great 
section  of  the  palaeontology  of  man ;  and  I  have 
the  same  double  respect  for  it  as  for  other  kinds 
of  palaeontology — that  is  to  say,  a  respect  for  the 
facts  which  it  establishes  as  for  all  facts,  and  a 
still  greater  respect  for  it  as  a  preparation  for  the 
discovery  of  a  law  of  progress. 

But  if  the  classics  were  taught  as  they  might  be 
taught — if  boys  and  girls  were  instructed  in  Greek 
and  Latin,  not  merely  as  languages,  but  as  illus- 
trations of  philological  science ;  if  a  vivid  picture 
of  life  on  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  two 
thousand  years  ago  were  imprinted  on  the  minds 
of  scholars  ;  if  ancient  history  were  tanght,  not  as 
a  weary  series  of  feuds  and  fights,  but  tra,ced  to  its 
causes  in  such  men  placed  under  such  conditions ; 
if,  lastly,  the  study  of  the  classical  books  were 
followed  in  such  a  manner  as  to  impress  boys  with 
their  beauties,  and  with  the  grand  simplicity  of 
their  statement  of  the  everlasting  problems  of 
human  life,  instead  of  with  their  verbal  and  gram- 
matical peculiarities ;  I  still  think  it  as  little 
proper  that  they  should  form  the  basis  of  a  liberal 
education  for  our  contemporaries,  as  I  should 
think  it  fitting  to  make  that  sort  of  palaeontology 
with  which  I  am  familiar  the  back-bone  of 
modern  education. 

It  is  wonderful  how  close  a  parallel  to  classical 
training  could  be  made  out  of  that  palaeontology 


IV  AND   WHERE   TO   FIND  TT  90 

to  which  I  refer.  In  the  first  place  I  could  get 
up  an  osteological  primer  so  arid,  so  pedantic  in 
its  terminology,  so  altogether  distasteful  to  the 
youthful  mind,  as  to  beat  the  recent  famous  pro- 
duction of  the  head-masters  out  of  the  field  in  all 
these  excellences.  Next,  I  could  exercise  my  boys 
upon  easy  fossils,  and  bring  out  all  their  powers  of 
memory  and  all  their  ingenuity  in  the  application 
of  my  osteo-grammatical  rules  to  the  interpreta- 
tion, or  construing,  of  those  fragments.  To  those 
who  had  reached  the  higher  classes,  I  might  sup- 
ply odd  bones  to  be  built  up  into  animals,  giving 
great  honour  and  reward  to  him  who  succeeded  in 
fabricating  monsters  most  entirely  in  accordance 
with  the  rules.  That  would  answer  to  verse- 
makiDg  and  essay-writing  in  the  dead  languages. 

To  be  sure,  if  a  great  comparative  anatomist 
were  to  look  at  these  fabrications  he  might  shake 
his  head,  or  laugh.  But  what  then  ?  Would 
such  a  catastrophe  destroy  the  parallel  ?  What, 
think  you,  would  Cicero,  or  Horace,  say  to  the 
production  of  the  best  sixth  form  going  ?  And 
would  not  Terence  stop  his  ears  and  run  out  if  he 
could  be  present  at  an  English  performance  of  his 
own  plays  ?  Would  Hamlet,  in  the  mouths  of  a 
set  of  French  actors,  who  should  insist  on  pro- 
nouncing English  after  the  fashion  of  their  own 
tongue,  be  more  hideously  ridiculous  ? 

But  it  will  be  said  that  I  am  forgetting  the 
beauty,  and  the  human  interest,  which  appertain 


100  A  LIBERAL   EDUCATION;  IV 

to  classical  studies.  To  this  I  reply  that  it  is  only 
a  very  strong  man  who  can  appreciate  the  charms 
of  a  landscape  as  he  is  toiling  up  a  steep  hill, 
along  a  bad  road.  What  with  short-windedness, 
stones,  ruts,  and  a  pervading  sense  of  the  wisdom 
of  rest  and  be  thankful,  most  of  us  have  little 
enough  sense  of  the  beautiful  under  these  circum- 
stances. The  ordinary  schoolboy  is  precisely  in 
this  case.  He  finds  Parnassus  uncommonly  steep, 
and  there  is  no  chance  of  his  having  much  time  or 
inclination  to  look  about  him  till  he  gets  to  the 
top.  And  nine  times  out  of  ten  he  does  not  get  to 
the  top. 

But  if  this  be  a  fair  picture  of  the  results  of  classi- 
cal teaching  at  its  best — and  I  gather  from  those  who 
have  authority  to  speak  on  such  matters  that  it  is  so 
— what  is  to  be  said  of  classical  teaching  at  its  worst, 
or  in  other  words,  of  the  classics  of  our  ordinary 
middle-class  schools  ? l  I  will  tell  you.  It  means 
getting  up  endless  forms  and  rules  by  heart.  It 
means  turning  Latin  and  Greek  into  English,  for 
the  mere  sake  of  being  able  to  do  it,  and  without 
the  smallest  regard  to  the  worth,  or  worthlessness, 
of  the  author  read.  It  means  the  learning  of  in- 
numerable, not  always  decent,  fables  in  such  a 
shape  that  the  meaning  they  once  had  is  dried  up 
into  utter  trash  ;  and  the  only  impression  left  upon 
a  boy's  mind  is,  that  the  people  who  believed  such 

1  For  a  justification  of  what  is  here  said  about  these  schools, 
Beo  that  valuable  book,  Essays  on  a  Liberal  Educationt  passim. 


rv  AND   WHERE   TO    FIND   IT  101 

things  must  have  been  the  greatest  idiots  the 
world  ever  saw.  And  it  means,  finally,  that  after 
a  dozen  years  spent  at  this  kind  of  work,  the 
sufferer  shall  be  incompetent  to  interpret  a  pas- 
sage in  an  author  he  has  not  already  got  up ;  that 
he  shall  loathe  the  sight  of  a  Greek  or  Latin 
book ;  and  that  he  shall  never  open,  or  think  of,  a 
classical  writer  again,  until,  wonderful  to  relate, 
he  insists  upon  submitting  his  sons  to  the  same 
process. 

These  be  your  gods,  O  Israel !  For  the  sake  of 
this  net  result  (and  respectability)  the  British 
father  denies  his  children  all  the  knowledge  they 
might  turn  to  account  in  life,  not  merely  for  the 
achievement  of  vulgar  success,  but  for  guidance  in 
the  great  crises  of  human  existence.  This  is  the 
stone  he  offers  to  those  whom  he  is  bound  by  the 
strongest  and  tenderest  ties  to  feed  with  bread. 

If  primary  and  secondary  education  are  in  this 
unsatisfactory  state,  what  is  to  be  said  to  the 
universities?  This  is  an  awful  subject,' and  one  I 
almost  fear  to  touch  with  my  unhallowed  hands ; 
but  I  can  tell  you  what  those  say  who  have 
authority  to  speak. 

The  Rector  of  Lincoln  College,  in  his  lately 
published  valuable  "  Suggestions  for  Academical 
Organisation  with  especial  reference  to  Oxford/' 
tells  us  (p.  127)  :— 

"The    colleges   were,  in   their   origin,   endow- 


102  A  LIBERAL   EDUCATION;  iv 

ments,  not  for  the  elements  of  a  general  liberal 
education,  but  for  the  prolonged  study  of  special 
and  professional  faculties  by  men  of  riper  age. 
The  universities  embraced  both  these  objects. 
The  colleges,  while  they  incidentally  aided  in 
elementary  education,  were  specially  devoted  to 
the  highest  learning 

"  This  was  the  theory  of  the  middle-age  university 
and  the  design  of  collegiate  foundations  in  their 
origin.  Time  and  circumstances  have  brought 
about  a  total  change.  The  colleges  no  longer 
promote  the  researches  of  science,  or  direct  pro- 
fessional study.  Here  and  there  college  walls 
may  shelter  an  occasional  student,  but  not  in 
larger  proportions  than  may  be  found  in  private 
life.  Elementary  teaching  of  youths  under  twenty 
is  now  the  only  function  performed  by  the  univer- 
sity, and  almost  the  only  object  of  college  endow- 
ments. Colleges  were  homes  for  the  life-study  of 
the  highest  and  most  abstruse  parts  of  knowledge. 
They  have  become  boarding  schools  in  which  the 
elements  of  the  learned  languages  are  taught  to 
youths/' 

If  Mr.  Pattison's  high  position,  and  his  obvious 
love  and  respect  for  his  university,  be  insufficient 
to  convince  the  outside  world  that  language  so 
severe  is  yet  no  more  than  just,  the  authority  of 
the  Commissioners  who  reported  on  the  University 
of  Oxford  in  1850  is  open  to  no  challenge.  Yet 
they  write : — 


IV  AND   WHERE   TO   FIND   IT  103 

"  It  is  generally  acknowledged  that  both  Oxford 
and  the  country  at  large  suffer  greatly  from  the 
absence  of  a  body  of  learned  men  devoting  theii 
lives  to  the  cultivation  of  science,  and  to  the 
direction  of  academical  education. 

"The  fact  that  so  few  books  of  profound 
research  emanate  from  the  University  of  Oxford, 
materially  impairs  its  character  as  a  seat  of 
learning,  and  consequently  its  hold  on  the  respect 
of  the  nation." 

Cambridge  can  claim  no  exemption  from  the 
reproaches  addressed  to  Oxford.  And  thus  there 
seems,  no  escape  from  the  admission  that  what  we 
fondly  call  our  great  seats  of  learning  are  simply 
"boarding  schools"  for  bigger  boys;  that  learned 
men  are  not  more  numerous  in  them  than  out  of 
them  ;  that  the  advancement  of  knowledge  is  not 
the  object  of  fellows  of  colleges  ;  that,  in  the 
philosophic  calm  and  meditative  stillness  of  their 
greenswarded  courts,  philosophy  does  not  thrive, 
and  meditation  bears  few  fruits. 

It  is  my  great  good  fortune  to  reckon  amongst 
my  friends  resident  members  of  both  universities, 
who  are  men  of  learning  and  research,  zealous 
cultivators  of  science,  keeping  before  their  minds 
a  noble  ideal  of  a  university,  and  doing  their  best 
to  make  that  ideal  a  reality;  and,  to  me,  they 
would  necessarily  typify  the  universities,  did  not 
the  authoritative  statements  I  have  quoted 
compel  me  to  believe  that  they  are  exceptional, 
67 


104  A  LIBERAL   EDUCATION  ;  IV 

and  not  representative  men.  Indeed,  upon  calm 
consideration,  several  circumstances  lead  me  to 
think  that  the  Rector  of  Lincoln  College  and  the 
Commissioners  cannot  be  far  wrong. 

I  believe  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
foreigner  who  should  wish  to  become  acquainted 
with  the  scientific,  or  the  literary,  activity  of 
modern  England,  would  simply  lose  his  time  and 
his  pains  if  he  visited  our  universities  with  that 
object. 

And,  as  for  works  of  profound  research  on  any 
subject,  and,  above  all,  in  that  classical  lore  for 
which  the  universities  profess  to  sacrifice  almost 
everything  else,  why,  a  third-rate,  poverty-stricken 
German  university  turns  out  more  produce  of 
that  kind  in  one  year,  than  our  vast  and  wealthy 
foundations  elaborate  in  ten. 

Ask  the  man  who  is  investigating  any  question, 
profoundly  and  thoroughly — be  it  historical,  philo- 
sophical, philological,  physical,  literary,  or  theo- 
logical; who  is  trying  to  make  himself  master  of 
any  abstract  subject  (except,  perhaps,  political 
economy  and  geology,  both  of  which  are  intensely 
Anglican  sciences),  whether  he  is  not  compelled 
to  read  half  a  dozen  times  as  many  German  as 
English  books  ?  And  whether,  of  these  English 
books,  more  than  one  in  ten  is  the  work  of  a 
fellow  of  a  college,  or  a  professor  of  an  English 
university  ? 

Is  this  from  any  lack  of  power  in  the  English 


IT  AND   WHERE   TO   FIND   IT  105 

as  compared  with  the  German  mind  ?  The 
countrymen  of  Grote  and  of  Mill,  of  Faraday,  of 
Robert  Brown,  of  Lyell,  and  of  Darwin,  to  go  no 
further  back  than  the  contemporaries  of  men  of 
middle  age,  can  afford  to  smile  at  such  a  suggestion. 
England  can  show  now,  as  she  has  been  able  to 
show  in  every  generation  since  civilisation  spread 
over  the  West,  individual  men  who  hold  their 
own  against  the  world,  and  keep  alive  the  old 
tradition  of  her  intellectual  eminence. 

But,  in  the  majority  of  cases,  these  men  are 
what  they  are  in  virtue  of  their  native  intellectual 
force,  and  of  a  strength  of  character  which  will 
not  recognise  impediments.  They  are  not  trained 
in  the  courts  of  the  Temple  of  Science,  but  storm 
the  walls  of  that  edifice  in  all  sorts  of  irregular 
ways,  and  with  much  loss  of  time  and  power,  in 
order  to  obtain  their  legitimate  positions. 

Our  universities  not  only  do  not  encourage  such 
men;  do  not  offer  them  positions,  in  which  it 
should  be  their  highest  duty  to  do,  thoroughly, 
that  which  they  are  most  capable  of  doing ;  but, 
as  far  as  possible,  university  training  shuts  out  of 
the  minds  of  those  among  them,  who  are  subjected 
to  it,  the  prospect  that  there  is  anything  in  the 
world  for  which  they  are  specially  fitted.  Imagine 
the  success  of  the  attempt  to  still  the  intellectual 
hunger  of  any  of  the  men  I  have  mentioned,  by 
putting  before  him,  as  the  object  of  existence,  the 
successful  mimicry  of  the  measure  of  a  Greek 


106  A   LIBERAL    EDUCATION;  17 

song,  or  the  roll  of  Ciceronian  prose  !  Imagine 
how  much  success  would  be  likely  to  attend  the 
attempt  to  persuade  such  men  that  the  education 
which  leads  to  perfection  in  such  elegances  is 
alone  to  be  called  culture ;  while  the  facts  of 
history,  the  process  of  thought,  the  conditions  of 
moral  and  social  existence,  and  the  laws  of 
physical  nature  are  left  to  be  dealt  with  as  they 
may  by  outside  barbarians  ! 

It  is  not  thus  that  the  German  universities, 
from  being  beneath  notice  a  century  ago,  have 
become  what  they  are  now — the  most  intensely 
cultivated  and  the  most  productive  intellectual 
corporations  the  world  has  ever  seen. 

The  student  who  repairs  to  them  sees  in  the 
list  of  classes  and  of  professors  a  fair  picture  of 
the  world  of  knowledge.  Whatever  he  needs  to 
know  there  is  some  one  ready  to  teach  him,  some 
one  competent  to  discipline  him  in  the  way  of 
learning ;  whatever  his  special  bent,  let  him  but 
be  able  and  diligent,  and  in  due  time  he  shall 
find  distinction  and  a  career.  Among  his  pro- 
fessors, he  sees  men  whose  names  are  known  and 
revered  throughout  the  civilised  world ;  and  their 
living  example  infects  him  with  a  noble  ambition, 
and  a  love  for  the  spirit  of  work 

The  Germans  dominate  the  intellectual  world 
by  virtue  of  the  same  simple  secret  as  that  which 
made  Napoleon  the  master  of  old  Europe.  They 
have  declared  la  carrier e  ouverte  aux  talents,  and 


rv  AND   WHERE   TO   FIND   IT  107 

every  Burscli  marches  with  a  professor's  gown  in 
his  knapsack.  Let  him  become  a  great  scholar, 
or  man  of  science,  and  ministers  will  compete  for 
his  services.  In  Germany,  they  do  not  leave  the 
chance  of  his  holding  the  office  he  would  render 
illustrious  to  the  tender  mercies  of  a  hot  canvass, 
and  the  final  wisdom  of  a  mob  of  country 
parsons. 

In  short,  in  Germany,  the  universities  are 
exactly  what  the  Rector  of  Lincoln  and  the 
Commissioners  tell  us  the  English  universities  are 
not ;  that  is  to  say,  corporations  "  of  learned  men 
devoting  their  lives  to  the  cultivation  of  science, 
and  the  direction  of  academical  education." 
They  are  not  "  boarding  schools  for  youths,"  nor 
clerical  seminaries ;  but  institutions  for  the  higher 
culture  of  men,  in  which  the  theological  faculty  is 
of  no  more  importance,  or  prominence,  than  the 
rest;  and  which  are  truly  "universities,"  since 
they  strive  to  represent  and  embody  the  totality 
of  human  knowledge,  and  to  find  room  for  all 
forms  of  intellectual  activity. 

May  zealous  and  clear-headed  reformers  like 
Mr.  Pattison  succeed  in  their  noble  endeavours  to 
shape  our  universities  towards  some  such  ideal  as 
this,  without  losing  what  is  valuable  and  distinc- 
tive in  their  social  tone  I  But  until  they  have 
succeeded,  a  liberal  education  will  be  no  more 
obtainable  in  our  Oxford  and  Cambridge  Univer- 
sities than  in  our  public  schools. 


108  A   LIBERAL   EDUCATION;  rv 

If  I  am  justified  in  my  conception  of  the  ideal 
of  a  liberal  education ;  and  if  what  I  have  said 
about  the  existing  educational  institutions  of  the 
country  is  also  true,  it  is  clear  that  the  two  have 
no  sort  of  relation  to  one  another ;  that  the  best  of 
our  schools  and  the  most  complete  of  our  uni- 
versity trainings  give  but  a  narrow,  one-sided,  and 
essentially  illiberal  education — while  the  w6rst  give 
what  is  really  next  to  no  education  at  all.  The 
South  London  Working-Men's  College  could  not 
copy  any  of  these  institutions  if  it  would ;  I  am 
bold  enough  to  express  the  conviction  that  it  ought 
not  if  it  could. 

For  what  is  wanted  is  the  reality  and  not  the 
mere  name  of  a  liberal  education ;  and  this  College 
must  steadily  set  before  itself  the  ambition  to  be 
able  to  give  that  education  sooner  or  later.  At 
present  we  are  but  beginning,  sharpening  our 
educational  tools,  as  it  were,  and,  except  a 
modicum  of  physical  science,  we  are  not  able  to 
offer  much  more  than  is  to  be  found  in  an  ordinary 
school. 

Moral  and  social  science — one  of  the  greatest 
and  most  fruitful  of  our  future  classes,  I  hope — at 
present  lacks  only  one  thing  in  our  programme, 
and  that  is  a  teacher.  A  considerable  want,  no 
doubt ;  but  it  must  be  recollected  that  it  is  much 
better  to  want  a  teacher  than  to  want  the  desire  to 
learn. 

Further,  we  need  what,  for  want  of  a  better 


XV  AND  WHERE   TO   FIND  IT  109 

name,  I  must  call  Physical  Geography.  What  I 
mean  is  that  which  the  Germans  call  "  Erdkunde? 
It  is  a  description  of  the  earth,  of  its  place  and 
relation  to  other  bodies ;  of  its  general  structure, 
and  of  its  great  features — winds,  tides,  mountains, 
plains:  of  the  chief  forms  of  the  vegetable  and 
animal  worlds,  of  the  varieties  of  man.  It  is 
the  peg  upon  which  the  greatest  quantity  of  useful 
and  entertaining  scientific  information  can  be 
suspended. 

Literature  is  not  upon  the  College  programme ; 
but  I  hope  some  day  to  see  it  there.  For  litera- 
ture is  the  greatest  of  all  sources  of  refined 
pleasure,  and  one  of  the  great  uses  of  a  liberal 
education  is  to  enable  us  to  enjoy  that  pleasure. 
There  is  scope  enough  for  the  purposes  of  liberal 
education  in  the  study  of  the  rich  treasures  of  our 
own  language  alone.  All  that  is  needed  is 
direction,  and  the  cultivation  of  a  refined  taste  by 
attention  to  sound  criticism.  But  there  is  no  reason 
why  French  and  German  should  not  be  mastered 
sufficiently  to  read  what  is  worth  reading  in 
*,hose  languages  with  pleasure  and  with  profit. 

And  finally,  by  and  by,  we  must  have  History ; 
treated  not  as  a  succession  of  battles  and 
dynasties ;  not  as  a  series  of  biographies ;  not  as 
evidence  that  Providence  has  always  been  on  the 
side  of  either  Whigs  or  Tories  ;  but  as  the  develop- 
ment of  man  in  times  past,  and  in  other  conditions 
than  our  own. 


110  A  LIBERAL   EDUCATION  IV 

But,  as  it  is  one  of  the  principles  of  our  College 
to  be  self-supporting,  the  public  must  lead,  and  we 
must  follow,  in  these  matters.  If  my  hearers  take 
to  heart  what  I  have  said  about  liberal  education, 
they  will  desire  these  things,  and  I  doubt  not  we 
shall  be  able  to  supply  them.  But  we  must  wait 
kill  the  demand  is  made. 


SCIENTIFIC  EDUCATION:  NOTES  OF 
AN  AFTER-DJNNEK,  SPEECH 

[1869] 

[MR.  THACKERAY,  talking  of  after-dinner  speeches,  hag 
lamented  that  "one  never  can  recollect  the  fine  things  one 
thought  of  in  the  cab,"  in  going  to  the  place  of  entertain, 
ment.  I  am  not  aware  that  there  are  any  "  fine  things  "  in 
the  following  pages,  but  such  as  there  are  stand  to  a  speech 
which  really  did  get  itself  spoken,  at  the  hospitable  table  of 
the  Liverpool  Philomathic  Society,  more  or  less  in  the 
position  of  what  "  one  thought  of  in  the  cab."] 

THE  introduction  of  scientific  training  into  the 
general  education  of  the  country  is  a  topic  upon 
which  I  could  not  have  spoken,  without  some  more 
or  less  apologetic  introduction,  a  few  years  ago. 
But  upon  this,  as  upon  other  matters,  public 
opinion  has  of  late  undergone  a  rapid  modification. 
Committees  of  both  Houses  of  the  Legislature  have 
agreed  that  something  must  be  done  in  this  direc- 


112  SCIENTIFIC   EDUCATION  :  v 

tion,  and  have  even  thrown  out  timid  and  faltering 
suggestions  as  to  what  should  be  done ;  while  at 
the  opposite  pole  of  society,  committees  of  working 
men  have  expressed  their  conviction  that  scientific 
training  is  the  one  thing  needful  for  their  advance- 
ment, whether  as  men,  or  as  workmen.  Only  the 
other  day,  it  was  my  duty  to  take  part  in  the 
reception  of  a  deputation  of  London  work  ing  men, 
who  desired  to  learn  from  Sir  Eoderick  Murchison, 
the  Director  of  the  Royal  School  of  Mines,  whether 
the  organisation  of  the  Institution  in  Jermyn  Street 
could  be  made  available  for  the  supply  of  that 
scientific  instruction  the  need  of  which  could  not 
have  been  apprehended,  or  stated,  more  clearly  than 
it  was  by  them. 

The  heads  of  colleges  in  our  great  universities 
(who  have  not  the  reputation  of  being  the  most 
mobile  of  persons)  have,  in  several  cases,  thought 
it  well  that,  out  of  the  great  number  of  honours 
and  rewards  at  their  disposal,  a  few  should  here- 
after be  given  to  the  cultivators  of  the  physical 
sciences.  Nay,  I  hear  that  some  colleges  have  even 
gone  so  far  as  to  appoint  one,  or,  maybe,  two  special 
tutors  for  the  purpose  of  putting  the  facts  and 
principles  of  physical  science  before  the  under- 
graduate mind.  And  I  say  it  with  gratitude  and 
great  respect  for  those  eminent  persons,  that  the 
head  masters  of  our  public  schools,  Eton,  Harrow, 
Winchester,  have  addressed  themselves  to  the 
problem  of  introducing  instruction  in  physical 


V  NOTES   OF   AN   AFTER-DINNER   SPEECH      113 

science  among  the  studies  of  those  great  educational 
bodies,  with  much  honesty  of  purpose  and  enlight- 
enment of  understanding ;  and  I  live  in  hope  that, 
before  long,  important  changes  in  this  direction  will 
be  carried  into  effect  in  those  strongholds  of  ancient 
prescription.  In  fact,  such  changes  have  already 
been  made,  and  physical  science,  even  now,  con- 
stitutes a  recognised  element  of  the  school  cur- 
riculum in  Harrow  and  Rugby,  whilst  I  under- 
stand that  ample  preparations  for  such  studies  are 
being  made  at  Eton  and  elsewhere. 

Looking  at  these  facts,  I  might  perhaps  spare 
myself  the  trouble  of  giving  any  reasons  for  the 
introduction  of  physical  science  into  elementary 
education ;  yet  I  cannot  but  think  that  it  may  be 
well  if  I  place  before  you  some  considerations 
which,  perhaps,  have  hardly  received  full  atten- 
tion. 

At  other  times,  and  in  other  places,  I  have 
endeavoured  to  state  the  higher  and  more  abstract 
arguments,  by  which  the  study  of  physical  science 
may  be  shown  to  be  indispensable  to  the  complete 
training  of  the  human  mind  ;  but  I  do  not  wish  it 
to  be  supposed  that,  because  I  happen  to  be 
devoted  to  more  or  less  abstract  and  "  unpractical " 
pursuits,  I  am  insensible  to  the  weight  which  ought 
to  be  attached  to  that  which  has  been  said  to 
be  the  English  conception  of  Paradise — namely, 
"  getting  on."  I  look  upon  it,  that  "  getting  on  " 
is  a  very  important  matter  indeed.  I  do  not  mean 


114  SCIENTIFIC  EDUCATION:  v 

merely  for  the  sake  of  the  coarse  and  tangible 
results  of  success,  but  because  humanity  is  so  con- 
stituted that  a  vast  number  of  us  would  never  be 
impelled  to  those  stretches  of  exertion  which  make 
us  wiser  and  more  capable  men,  if  it  were  not  for 
the  absolute  necessity  of  putting  on  our  faculties 
all  the  strain  they  will  bear,  for  the  purpose  of 
"  getting  on  "  in  the  most  practical  sense. 

Now  the  value  of  a  knowledge  of  physical  science 
as  a  means  of  getting  on  is  indubitable.  There 
are  hardly  any  of  our  trades,  except  the  merely 
huckstering  ones,  in  which  some  knowledge  of 
science  may  not  be  directly  profitable  to  the  pur- 
suer of  that  occupation.  As  industry  attains  higher 
stages  of  its  development,  as  its  processes  become 
more  complicated  and  refined,  and  competition 
more  keen,  the  sciences  are  dragged  in,  one  by  one, 
to  take  their  share  in  the  fray ;  and  he  who  can 
best  avail  himself  of  their  help  is  the  man  who  will 
come  out  uppermost  in  that  struggle  for  existence, 
which  goes  on  as  fiercely  beneath  the  smooth 
surface  of  modern  society,  as  among  the  wild 
inhabitants  of  the  woods. 

But  in  addition  to  the  bearing  of  science  on 
ordinary  practical  life,  let  me  direct  your  attention 
to  its  immense  influence  on  several  of  the  profes-- 
sions.  I  ask  any  one  who  has  adopted  the  calling 
of  an  engineer,  how  much  time  he  lost  when  he 
left  school,  because  he  had  to  devote  himself  to 
pursuits  which  were  absolutely  novel  and  strange, 


V  NOTES   OF   AN   AFTER-DINNER   SPEECH      115 

and  of  which  he  had  not  obtained  the  remotest 
conception  from  his  instructors  ?  He  had  to 
familiarise  himself  with  ideas  of  the  course  and 
powers  of  Nature,  to  which  his  attention  had  never 
been  directed  during  his  school-life,  and  to  learn, 
for  the  first  time,  that  a  world  of  facts  lies  outside 
and  beyond  the  world  of  words.  I  appeal  to  those 
who  know  what  engineering  is,  to  say  how  far  I  am 
right  in  respect  to  that  profession  ;  but  with  regard 
to  another,  of  no  less  importance,  I  shall  venture 
to  speak  of  my  own  knowledge.  There  is  no  one 
of  us  who  may  not  at  any  moment  be  thrown, 
bound  hand  and  foot  by  physical  incapacity,  into 
the  hands  of  a  medical  practitioner.  The  chances 
of  life  and  death  for  all  and  each  of  us  may,  at  any 
moment,  depend  on  the  skill  with  which  that  prac- 
titioner is  able  to  make  out  what  is  wrong  in  our 
bodily  frames,  and  on  his  ability  to  apply  the  proper 
remedy  to  the  defect. 

The  necessities  of  modern  life  are  such,  and  the 
class  from  which  the  medical  profession  is  chiefly 
recruited  is  so  situated,  that  few  medical  men  can 
hope  to  spend  more  than  three  or  four,  or  it  may 
be  five,  years  in  the  pursuit  of  those  studies  which 
are  immediately  germane  to  physic.  How  is  that  all 
too  brief  period  spent  at  present  ?  I  speak  as  an 
old  examiner,  having  served  some  eleven  or  twelve 
years  in  that  capacity  in  the  University  of  London, 
and  therefore  having  a  practical  acquaintance  with 
the  subject;  but  I  might  fortify  myself  by  the 


116  SCIENTIFIC   EDUCATION:  v 

authority  of  the  President  of  the  College  of 
Surgeons,  Mr.  Quain,  whom  I  heard  the  other  day 
in  an  admirable  address  (the  Hunterian  Oration) 
deal  fully  and  wisely  with  this  very  topic.1 

A  young  man  commencing  the  study  of  medicine 
is  at  once  required  to  endeavour  to  make  an  ac- 
quaintance with  a  number  of  sciences,  such  as 
Physics,  as  Chemistry,  as  Botany,  as  Physiology, 
which  are  absolutely  and  entirely  strange  to  him, 
however  excellent  his  so-called  education  at  school 
may  have  been.  Not  only  is  he  devoid  of  all 
apprehension  of  scientific  conceptions,  not  only  does 
he  fail  to  attach  any  meaning  to  the  words  "  mat- 

1  Mr.  Quain's  words  (Medical  Times  and  Gazette,  February 
20)  are: — "A  few  words  as  to  our  special  Medical  course  of 
instruction  and  the  influence  upon  it  of  such  changes  in  the 
elementary  schools  as  I  have  mentioned.  The  student  now 
enters  at  once  upon  several  sciences — physics,  chemistry, 
anatomy,  physiology,  botany,  pharmacy,  therapeutics— all  these, 
the  facts  and  the  language  and  the  laws  of  each,  to  be  mastered 
in  eighteen  months.  Up  to  the  beginning  of  the  Medical  course 
many  have  learned  little.  We  cannot  claim  anything  better 
than  the  Examiner  of  the  University  of  London  and  the  Cam- 
bridge Lecturer  have  reported  for  their  Universities.  Supposing 
that  at  school  young  people  had  acquired  some  exact  elementary 
knowledge  in  physics,  chemistry,  and  a  branch  of  natural 
history — say  botany — with  the  physiology  connected  With  it, 
they  would  then  have  gained  necessary  knowledge,  with  some 
practice  in  inductive  reasoning.  The  whole  studies  are  pro- 
cesses of  observation  and  induction — the  best  discipline  of  the 
mind  for  the  purposes  of  life — for  our  purposes  not  less  than 
any.  '  By  such  study  (says  Dr.  Whewell)  of  one  or  more 
departments  of  inductive  science  the  mind  may  escape  from  the 
thraldom  of  mere  words. '  By  that  plan  the  burden  of  the  early 
Medical  course  would  be  much  lightened,  and  more  time  devoted 
to  practical  studies,  including  Sir  Thomas  Watjon's  '  final  and 
supreme  stage '  of  the  knowledge  of  Medicine." 


V  NOTES   OF  AN   AFTER-DINNER  SPEECH      117 

ter,"  "  force/'  or  "  law  "  in  their  scientific  senses, 
but,  worse  still,  he  has  no  notion  of  what  it  is  to  come 
into  contact  with  Nature,  or  to  lay  his  mind  along- 
side of  a  physical  fact,  and  try  to  conquer  it,  in 
the  way  our  great  naval  hero  told  his  captains  to 
master  their  enemies.  His  whole  mind  has  been 
given  to  books,  and  I  am  hardly  exaggerating  if 
I  say  that  they  are  more  real  to  him  than  Nature. 
He  imagines  that  all  knowledge  can  be  got  out  of 
books,  and  rests  upon  the  authority  of  some  master 
or  other ;  nor  does  he  entertain  any  misgiving  that 
the  method  of  learning  which  led  to  proficiency 
in  the  rules  of  grammar  will  suffice  to  lead  him  to 
a  mastery  of  the  laws  of  Nature.  The  youngster, 
thus  unprepared  for  serious  study,  is  turned  loose 
among  his  medical  studies,  with  the  result,  in  nine 
cases  out  of  ten,  that  the  first  year  of  his  curricu- 
lum is  spent  in  learning  how  to  learn.  Indeed,  he 
is  lucky  if,  at  the  end  of  the  first  year,  by  the 
exertions  of  his  teachers  and  his  own  industry,  he 
has  acquired  even  that  art  of  arts.  After  which 
there  remain  not  more  than  three,  or  perhaps  four, 
years  for  the  profitable  study  of  such  vast  sciences 
as  Anatomy,  Physiology,  Therapeutics,  Medicine, 
Surgery,  Obstetrics,  and  the  like,  upon  his  know- 
ledge or  ignorance  of  which  it  depends  whether  the 
practitioner  shall  diminish,  or  increase,  the  bills  of 
mortality.  Now  what  is  it  but  the  preposterous 
condition  of  ordinary  school  education  which  pre- 
vents a  young  man  of  seventeen,  destined  for  the 


118  SCIENTIFIC   EDUCATION:  v 

practice  of  medicine,  from  being  fully  prepared  for 
the  study  of  Nature ;  and  from  coming  to  the 
medical  school,  equipped  with  that  preliminary 
knowledge  of  the  principles  of  Physics,  of  Chem- 
istry and  of  Biology,  upon  which  he  has  now  to 
waste  one  of  the  precious  years,  every  moment  of 
which  ought  to  be  given  to  those  studies  which 
bear  directly  upon  the  knowledge  of  his  profes- 
sion? 

There  is  another  profession,  to  the  members  of 
which,  I  think,  a  certain  preliminary  knowledge  of 
physical  science  might  be  quite  as  valuable  as  to 
the  medical  man.  The  practitioner  of  medicine 
sets  before  himself,  the  noble  object  of  taking  care 
of  man's  bodily  welfare ;  but  the  members  of  this 
other  profession  undertake  to  "  minister  to  minds 
diseased,"  and,  so  far  as  may  be,  to  diminish  sin 
and  soften  sorrow.  Like  the  medical  profession, 
the  clerical,  of  which  I  now  speak,  rests  its  power 
to  heal  upon  its  knowledge  of  the  order  of  the 
universe — upon  certain  theories  of  man's  relation 
to  that  which  lies  outside  him.  It  is  not  my 
business  to  express  any  opinion  about  these 
theories.  I  merely  wish  to  point  out  that,  like  all 
other  theories,  they  are  professedly  based  upon 
matters  of  fact.  Thus  the  clerical  profession  has  to 
deal  with  the  facts  of  Nature  from  a  certain  point 
of  view  ;  and  hence  it  comes  into  contact  with  that 
of  the  man  of  science,  who  has  to  treat  the  same 
facts  from  another  point  of  view.  You  know  how 


f  NOTES   OF   AN   AFTER-DINNER   SPEECH      110 

often  that  contact  is  to  be  described  as  collision,  or 
violent  friction ;  and  how  great  the  heat,  how  little 
the  light,  which  commonly  results  from  it. 

In  the  interests  of  fair  play,  to  say  nothing  of 
those  of  mankind,  I  ask,  Why  do  not  the  clergy  as 
a  body  acquire,  as  a  part  of  their  preliminary 
education,  some  such  tincture  of  physical  science 
as  will  put  them  in  a  position  to  understand  the 
difficulties  in  the  way  of  accepting  their  theories, 
which  are  forced  upon  the  mind  of  every  thought- 
ful and  intelligent  man,  who  has  taken  the  trouble 
to  instruct  himself  in  the  elements  of  natural 
knowledge  ? 

Some  time  ago  I  attended  a  large  meeting  of 
the  clergy,  for  the  purpose  of  delivering  an  address 
which  I  had  been  invited  to  give.  I  spoke  of  some 
of  the  most  elementary  facts  in  physical  science, 
and  of  the  manner  in  which  they  directly  contra- 
dict certain  of  the  ordinary  teachings  of  the  clergy. 
The  result  was,  that,  after  I  had  finished,  one 
section  of  the  assembled  ecclesiastics  attacked  me 
with  all  the  intemperance  of  pious  zeal,  for  stating 
facts  and  conclusions  which  no  competent  judge 
doubts  ;  while,  after  the  first  speakers  had  subsided, 
amidst  the  cheers  of  the  great  majority  of  their 
colleagues,  the  more  rational  minority  rose  to  tell 
me  that  I  had  taken  wholly  superfluous  pains,  that 
they  already  knew  all  about  what  I  had  told  them, 
and  perfectly  agreed  with  me.  A  hard-headed 
friend  of  mine,  who  was  present,  put  the  not  un- 

68 


120  SCIENTIFIC   EDUCATION:  v 

natural  question,  "  Then  why  don't  you  say  so  in 
your  pulpits?"  to  which  inquiry  I  heard  no 
reply. 

In  fact  the  clergy  are  at  present  divisible  into 
three  sections :  an  immense  body  who  are 
ignorant  and  speak  out ;  a  small  proportion  who 
know  and  are  silent ;  and  a  minute  minority  who 
know  and  speak  according  to  their  knowledge. 
By  the  clergy,  I  mean  especially  the  Protestant 
clergy.  Our  great  antagonist — I  speak  as  a  man 
of  science — the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  the  one 
great  spiritual  organisation  which  is  able  to 
resist,  and  must,  as  a  matter  of  life  and  death, 
resist,  the  progress  of  science  and  modern  civilisa- 
tion, manages  her  affairs  much  better. 

It  was  my  fortune  some  time  ago  to  pay  a  visit 
to  one  of  the  most  important  of  the  institutions 
in  which  the  clergy  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  in  these  islands  are  trained ;  and  it 
seemed  to  me  that  the  difference  between  these 
men  and  the  comfortable  champions  of  Angli- 
canism and  of  Dissent,  was  comparable  to  the 
difference  between  our  gallant  Volunteers  and  the 
trained  veterans  of  Napoleon's  Old  Guard. 

The  Catholic  priest  is  trained  to  know  his 
business,  and  do  it  effectually.  The  professors  of 
the  college  in  question,  learned,  zealous,  and 
determined  men,  permitted  me  to  speak  frankly 
with  them.  We  talked  like  outposts  of  opposed 
armies  during  a  truce — as  friendly  enemies;  and 


V  NOTES   OF   AN    AFTEK-DINNER   SPEECH      121 

when  I  ventured  to  point  out  the  difficulties  their 
students  would  have  to  encounter  from  scientific 
thought,  they  replied  :  "  Our  Church  has  lasted 
many  ages,  and  has  passed  safely  through  many 
storms.  The  present  is  but  a  new  gust  of  the 
old  tempest,  and  we  do  not  turn  out  our  young 
men  less  fitted  to  weather  it,  than  they  have 
been,  in  former  times,  to  cope  with  the 
difficulties  of  those  times.  The  heresies  of  the 
day  are  explained  to  them  by  their  professors  of 
philosophy  and  science,  and  they  are  taught  how 
those  heresies  are  to  be  met." 

I  heartily  respect  an  organisation  which  faces 
its  enemies  in  this  way ;  and  I  wish  that  all 
ecclesiastical  organisations  were  in  as  effective  a 
condition.  I  think  it  would  be  better,  not  only 
for  them,  but  for  us.  The  army  of  liberal  thought 
is,  at  present,  in  very  loose  order ;  and  many  a 
spirited  free-thinker  makes  use  of  his  freedom 
mainly  to  vent  nonsense.  We  should  be  the  better 
for  a  vigorous  and  watchful  enemy  to  hammer  us 
into  cohesion  and  discipline ;  and  I,  for  one, 
lament  that  the  bench  of  Bishops  cannot  show  a 
man  of  the  calibre  of  Butler  of  the  "  Analogy," 
who,  if  he  were  alive,  would  make  short  work  of 
much  of  the  current  a  priori  "  infidelity." 

I  hope  you  will  consider  that  the  argu- 
ments I  have  now  stated,  even  if  there  were  no 
better  ones,  constitute  a  sufficient  apology  for 
urging  the  introduction  of  science  into  schools. 


122  SCIENTIFIC   EDUCATION  :  v 

The  next  question  to  which  I  have  to  address 
myself  is,  What  sciences  ought  to  be  thus  taught  ? 
And  this  is  one  of  the  most  important  of  ques- 
tions, because  my  side  (I  am  afraid  I  am  a  terribly 
candid  friend)  sometimes  spoils  its  cause  by  going 
in  for  too  much.  There  are  other  forms  of  culture 
beside  physical  science ;  and  I  should  be  pro- 
foundly sorry  to  see  the  fact  forgotten,  or  even  to 
observe  a  tendency  to  starve,  or  cripple,  literary, 
or  aesthetic,  culture  for  the  sake  of  science.  Such 
a  narrow  view  of  the  nature  of  education  has 
nothing  to  do  with  my  firm  conviction  that  a 
complete  and  thorough  scientific  culture  ought  to 
be  introduced  into  all  schools.  By  this,  however, 
I  do  not  mean  that  every  schoolboy  should  be 
taught  everything  in  science.  That  would  be  a 
very  absurd  thing  to  conceive,  and  a  very  mischie- 
vous thing  to  attempt.  What  I  mean  is,  that  no 
boy  nor  girl  should  leave  school  without  possessing 
a  grasp  of  the  general  character  of  science,  and 
without  having  been  disciplined,  more  or  less,  in 
the  methods  of  all  sciences  ;  so  that,  when  turned 
into  the  world  to  make  their  own  way,  they  shall 
be  prepared  to  face  scientific  problems,  not  by 
knowing  at  once  the  conditions  of  every  problem, 
or  by  being  able  at  once  to  solve  it ;  but  by  being 
familiar  with  the  general  current  of  scientific 
thought,  and  by  being  able  to  apply  the  methods 
of  science  in  the  proper  way,  when  they  have 
acquainted  themselves  with  the  conditions  of  the 
special  problem. 


V  NOTES   OF  AN   AFTER-DINNER   SPEECH      123 

That  is  what  I  understand  by  scientific  educa- 
tion. To  furnish  a  boy  with  such  an  education, 
it  is  by  no  means  necessary  that  he  should  devote 
his  whole  school  existence  to  physical  science  :  in 
fact,  no  one  would  lament  so  one-sided  a  proceed- 
ing more  than  I.  Nay  more,  it  is  not  necessary 
for  him  to  give  up  more  than  a  moderate  share  of 
his  time  to  such  studies,  if  they  be  properly 
selected  and  arranged,  and  if  he  be  trained  in 
them  in  a  fitting  manner. 

I  conceive  the  proper  course  to  be  somewhat  as 
follows.  To  begin  with,  let  every  child  be 
instructed  in  those  general,  views  of  the  phse- 
nomena  of  Nature  for  which  we  have  no  exact 
English  name.  The  nearest  approximation  to  a 
name  for  what  I  mean,  which  we  possess,  is 
"  physical  geography."  The  Germans  have  a 
better,  "  Erdkunde"  ("  earth  knowledge "  or 
"  geology  "  in  its  etymological  sense),  that  is  to 
say,  a  general  knowledge  of  the  earth,  and  what 
is  on  it,  in  it,  and  about  it.  If  any  one  who  has 
had  experience  of  the  ways  of  young  children  will 
call  to  mind  their  questions,  he  will  find  that  so 
far  as  they  can  be  put  into  any  scientific  category, 
they  come  under  this  head  of  "  Erdkunde."  The 
child  asks,  "  What  is  the  moon,  and  why  does  it 
shine  ?  "  "  What  is  this  water,  and  where  does  it 
run  ?  "  "  What  is  the  wind  ?  "  "  What  makes 
this  waves  in  the  sea  ?  "  "  Where  does  this  animal 
live,  and  what  is  the  use  of  that  plant  ? "  And 


124  SCIENTIFIC  EDUCATION  :  V 

if  not  snubbed  and  stunted  by  being  told  not  to 
ask  foolish  questions,  there  is  no  limit  to  the 
intellectual  craving  of  a  young  child  ;  nor  any 
bounds  to  the  slow,  but  solid,  accretion  of  know- 
ledge and  development  of  the  thinking  faculty  in 
this  way.  To  all  such  questions,  answers  which 
are  necessarily  incomplete,  though  true  as  far  as 
they  go,  may  be  given  by  any  teacher  whose  ideas 
represent  real  knowledge  and  not  mere  book 
learning ;  and  a  panoramic  view  of  Nature, 
accompanied  by  a  strong  infusion  of  the  scientific 
habit  of  mind,  may  thus  be  placed  within  the 
reach  of  every  child  of  nine  or  ten. 

After  this  preliminary  opening  of  the  eyes  to 
the  great  spectacle  of  the  daily  progress  of 
Nature,  as  the  reasoning  faculties  of  the  child 
grow,  and  he  becomes  familiar  with  the  use  of  the 
tools  of  knowledge — reading,  writing,  and  ele- 
mentary mathematics — he  should  pass  on  to 
what  is,  in  the  more  strict  sense,  physical  science. 
Now  there  are  two  kinds  of  physical  science  :  the 
one  regards  form  and  the  relation  of  forms  to 
one  another ;  the  other  deals  with  causes  and 
effects.  In  many  of  what  we  term  sciences,  these 
two  kinds  are  mixed  up  together ;  but  systematic 
botany  is  a  pure  example  of  the  former  kind,  and 
physics  of  the  latter  kind,  of  science.  Every 
educational  advantage  which  training  in  physical 
science  can  give  is  obtainable  from  the  proper 
study  of  these  two ;  and  I  should  be  contented, 


V  NOTES   OF   AN   AFTER-DINNER   SPEECH      125 

for  the  present,  if  they,  added  to  our  "  Erdkunde," 
furnished  the  whole  of  the  scientific  curriculum 
of  school.  Indeed,  I  conceive  it  would  be  one  of 
the  greatest  boons  which  could  be  conferred  upon 
England,  if  henceforward  every  child  in  the 
country  were  instructed  in  the  general  knowledge 
of  the  things  about  it,  in  the  elements  of  physics, 
and  of  botany.  But  I  should  be  still  better 
pleased  if  there  could  be  added  somewhat  of 
chemistry,  and  an  elementary  acquaintance  with 
human  physiology. 

So  far  as  school  education  is  concerned,  I  want 
to  go  no  further  just  now;  and  I  believe  that 
such  instruction  would  make  an  excellent  introduc- 
tion to  that  preparatory  scientific  training  which, 
as  I  have  indicated,  is  so  essential  for  the  success- 
ful pursuit  of  our  most  important  professions. 
But  this  modicum  of  instruction  must  be  so  given 
as  to  ensure  real  knowledge  and  practical  disci- 
pline. If  scientific  education  is  to  be  dealt  with 
as  mere  bookwork,  it  will  be  better  not  to 
attempt  it,  but  to  stick  to  the  Latin  Grammar 
which  makes  no  pretence  to  be  anything  but 
bookwork. 

If  the  great  benefits  of  scientific  training  are 
sought,  it  is  essential  that  such  training  should  be 
real :  that  is  to  say,  that  the  mind  of  the  scholar 
should  be  brought  into  direct  relation  with  fact, 
that  he  should  not  merely  be  told  a  thing,  but 
made  to  see  by  the  use  of  his  own  intellect  and 


126  SCIENTIFIC   EDUCATION:  v 

ability  that  the  thing  is  so  and  no  otherwise. 
The  great  peculiarity  of  scientific  training,  that  in 
virtue  of  which  it  cannot  be  replaced  by  any 
other  discipline  whatsoever,  is  this  bringing  of  the 
mind  directly  into  contact  with  fact,  and  practising 
the  intellect  in  the  completest  form  of  induction ; 
that  is  to  say,  in  drawing  conclusions  from  par- 
ticular facts  made  known  by  immediate  observation 
of  Nature. 

The  other  studies  which  enter  into  ordinary 
education  do  not  discipline  the  mind  in  this  way. 
Mathematical  training  is  almost  purely  deductive. 
The  mathematician  starts  with  a  few  simple  pro- 
positions, the  proof  of  which  is  so  obvious  that  they 
are  called  self-evident,  and  the  rest  of  his  work 
consists  of  subtle  deductions  from  them.  The 
teaching  of  languages,  at  any  rate  as  ordinarily 
practised,  is  of  the  same  general  nature, — authority 
and  tradition  furnish  the  data,  and  the  mental 
operations  of  the  scholar  are  deductive. 

Again  :  if  history  be  the  subject  of  study,  the 
facts  are  still  taken  upon  the  evidence  of  tradition 
and  authority.  You  cannot  make  a  boy  see  the 
battle  of  Thermopylae  for  himself,  or  know,  of  his 
own  knowledge,  that  Cromwell  once  ruled  England. 
There  is  no  getting  into  direct  contact  with  natural 
fact  by  this  road  ;  there  is  no  dispensing  with 
authority,  but  rather  a  resting  upon  it. 

In  all  these  respects,  science  differs  from  other 
educational  discipline,  and  prepares  the  scholar  for 


V  NOTES  OF  AN  AFTER-DINNER   SPEECH      127 

common  life.  What  have  we  to  do  in  e very-day 
life  ?  Most  of  the  business  which  demands  our 
attention  is  matter  of  fact,  which  needs,  in  the  first 
place,  to  be  accurately  observed  or  apprehended ; 
in  the  second,  to  be  interpreted  by  inductive  and 
deductive  reasonings,  which  are  altogether  similar 
in  their  nature  to  those  employed  in  science.  In 
the  one  case,  as  in  the  other,  whatever  is  taken  for 
granted  is  so  taken  at  one's  own  peril ;  fact  and 
reason  are  the  ultimate  arbiters,  and  patience  and 
honesty  are  the  great  helpers  out  of  difficulty. 

But  if  scientific  training  is  to  yield  its  most 
eminent  results,  it  must.  I  repeat,  be  made  practical. 
That  is  to  say,  in  explaining  to  a  child  the  general 
phsenomena  of  Nature,  you  must,  as  far  as  possible, 
give  reality  to  your  teaching  by  object-lessons ;  in 
teaching  him  botany,  he  must  handle  the  plants 
and  dissect  the  flowers  for  himself;  in  teaching 
him  physics  and  chemistry,  you  must  not  be 
solicitous  to  fill  him  with  information,  but  you 
must  be  careful  that  what  he  learns  he  knows  of 
his  own  knowledge.  Don't  be  satisfied  with  telling 
him  that  a  magnet  attracts  iron.  Let  him  see 
that  it  does ;  let  him  feel  the  pull  of  the  one  upon 
the  other  for  himself.  And,  especially,  tell  him 
that  it  is  his  duty  to  doubt  until  he  is  compelled, 
by  the  absolute  authority  of  Nature,  to  believe  that 
which  is  written  in  books.  Pursue  this  discipline 
carefully  and  conscientiously,  and  you  may  make 
sure  that,  however  scanty  may  be  the  measure  of 


128  SCIENTIFIC   EDUCATION:  V 

information  which  you  have  poured  into  the  boy's 
mind,  you  have  created  an  intellectual  habit  of 
priceless  value  in  practical  life. 

One  is  constantly  asked,  When  should  this 
scientific  education  be  commenced  ?  I  should  say 
with  the  dawn  of  intelligence.  As  I  have  already 
said,  a  child  seeks  for  information  about  matters 
of  physical  science  as  soon  as  it  begins  to  talk.  The 
first  teaching  it  wants  is  an  object-lesson  of  one 
sort  or  another ;  and  as  soon  as  it  is  fit  for 
systematic  instruction  of  any  kind,  it  is  fit  for  a 
modicum  of  science. 

People  talk  of  the  difficulty  of  teaching  young 
children  such  matters,  and  in  the  same  breath 
insist  upon  their  learning  their  Catechism,  which 
contains  propositions  far  harder  to  comprehend 
than  anything  in  the  educational  course  I  have 
proposed.  Again :  I  am  incessantly  told  that  we, 
who  advocate  the  introduction  of  science  in  schools, 
make  no  allowance  for  the  stupidity  of  the  average 
boy  or  girl ;  but,  in  my  belief,  that  stupidity,  in 
nine  cases  out  of  ten,  "fit,  non  nascitur"  and  is 
developed  by  a  long  process  of  parental  and 
pedagogic  repression  of  the  natural  intellectual 
appetites,  accompanied  by  a  persistent  attempt  to 
create  artificial  ones  for  food  which  is  not  only 
tasteless,  but  essentially  indigestible. 

Those  who  urge  the  difficulty  of  instructing 
young  people  in  science  are  apt  to  forget  another 
very  important  condition  of  success — important  in 


V  NOTES   OF  AN  AFTER-DINNER  SPEECH      129 

all  kinds  of  teaching,  but  most  essential,  I  am  dis- 
posed to  think,  when  the  scholars  are  very  young. 
This  condition  is,  that  the  teacher  should  himself 
really  and  practically  know  his  subject.  If  he  does, 
he  will  be  able  to  speak  of  it  in  the  easy  language, 
and  with  the  completeness  of  conviction,  with  which 
he  talks  of  any  ordinary  every-day  matter.  If  he 
does  not,  he  will  be  afraid  to  wander  beyond  the 
limits  of  the  technical  phraseology  which  he  has 
got  up ;  and  a  dead  dogmatism,  which  oppresses, 
or  raises  opposition,  will  take  the  place  of  the  lively 
confidence,  born  of  personal  conviction,  which 
cheers  and  encourages  the  eminently  sympathetic 
mind  of  childhood. 

I  have  already  hinted  that  such  scientific  train- 
ing as  we  seek  for  may  be  given  without  making 
any  extravagant  claim  upon  the  time  now  devoted 
to  education.  We  ask  only  for  "  a  most  favoured 
nation  "  clause  in  our  treaty  with  the  schoolmaster ; 
we  demand  no  more  than  that  science  shall  have 
as  much  time  given  to  it  as  any  other  single  sub- 
ject—say four  hours  a  week  in  each  class  of  an 
ordinary  school. 

For  the  present,  I  think  men  of  science  would 
be  well  content  with  such  an  arrangement  as  this ; 
but  speaking  for  myself,  I  do  not  pretend  to 
believe  that  such  an  arrangement  can  be,  or  will 
be,  permanent.  In  these  times  the  educational 
tree  seems  to  me  to  have  its  roots  in  the  air,  its  leaves 
and  flowers  in  the  ground ;  and,  I  confess,  I  should 

\ 


130  SCIENTIFIC   EDUCATION:  v 

very  much  like  to  turn  it  upside  down,  so  that  its 
roots  might  be  solidly  embedded  among  the  facts 
of  Nature,  and  draw  thence  a  sound  nutriment  for 
the  foliage  and  fruit  of  literature  and  of  art.  No 
educational  system  can  have  a  claim  to  perman- 
ence, unless  it  recognises  the  truth  that  education 

'  O 

has  two  great  ends  to  which  everything  else  must 
be  subordinated.  The  one  of  these  is  to  increase 
knowledge ;  the  other  is  to  develop  the  love  of 
right  and  the  hatred  of  wrong. 

With  wisdom  and  uprightness  a  nation  can  make 
its  way  worthily,  and  beauty  will  follow  in  the  foot- 
steps of  the  two,  even  if  she  be  not  specially  in- 
vited ;  while  there  is  perhaps  no  sight  in  the  whole 
world  more  saddening  and  revolting  than  is  offered 
by  men  sunk  in  ignorance  of  everything  but  what 
other  men  have  written ;  seemingly  devoid  of  moral 
belief  or  guidance  ;  but  with  the  sense  of  beauty 
so  keen,  and  the  power  of  expression  so  cultivated, 
that  their  sensual  caterwauling  may  be  almost 
mistaken  for  the  music  of  the  spheres. 

At  present,  education  is  almost  entirely  devoted 
to  the  cultivation  of  the  power  of  expression,  and 
of  the  sense  of  literary  beauty.  The  matter  of 
having  anything  to  say,  beyond  a  hash  of  other 
people's  opinions,  or  of  possessing  any  criterion  of 
beauty,  so  that  we  may  distinguish  between  the 
Godlike  and  the  devilish,  is  left  aside  as  of  no 
moment.  I  think  I  do  not  err  in  saying  that  if 
science  were  made  a  foundation  of  education, 


V  NOTES   OF   AN   AFTER-DINNER   SPEECH      lol 

instead  of  being,  at  most,  stuck  on  as  cornice  to 
the  edifice,  this  state  of  things  could  not  exist. 

In  advocating  the  introduction  of  physical  science 
as  a  leading  element  in  education,  I  by  no  means 
nifer  only  to  the  higher  schools.  On  the  contrary, 
I  believe  that  such  a  change  is  even  more  impera- 
tively called  for  in  those  primary  schools,  in  which 
the  children  of  the  poor  are  expected  to  turn  to 
the  best  account  the  little  time  they  can  devote 
to  the  acquisition  of  knowledge.  A  great  step  in 
this  direction  has  already  been  made  by  the  estab- 
lishment of  science-classes  un.ler  the  Department 
of  Science  and  Art, — a  measure  which  came  into 
existence  unnoticed,  but  which  will,  I  believe,  turn 
out  to  be  of  more  importance  to  the  welfare  of  the 
people  than  many  political  changes  over  which  the 
noise  of  battle  has  rent  the  air. 

Under  the  regulations  to  which  I  refer,  ft 
schoolmaster  can  set  up  a  class  in  one  or  more 
branches  of  science ;  his  pupils  will  be  examined, 
and  the  State  will  pay  him,  at  a  certain  rate,  for 
all  who  succeed  in  passing.  I  have  acted  as  an 
examiner  under  this  system  from  the  beginning 
of  its  establishment,  and  this  year  I  expect  to 
have  not  fewer  than  a  couple  of  thousand  sets  of 
answers  to  questions  in  Physiology,  mainly  from 
young  people  of  the  artisan  class,  who  have  been 
taught  in  the  schools  which  are  now  scattered 
all  over  great  Britain  and  Ireland.  Some  of  my 
colleagues,  who  have  to  deal  with  subjects  such  as 


132  SCIENTIFIC   EDUCATION  V 

Geometry,  for  which  the  present  teaching  power 
is  better  organised,  I  understand  are  likely  to 
have  three  or  four  times  as  many  papers.  So  far 
as  my  own  subjects  are  concerned,  I  can  under- 
take to  say  that  a  great  deal  of  the  teaching,  the 
results  of  which  are  before  me  in  these  examin- 
ations, is  very  sound  and  good  ;  and  I  think  it  is 
in  the  power  of  the  examiners,  not  only  to  keep 
up  the  present  standard,  but  to  cause  an  almost 
unlimited  improvement.  Now  what  does  this 
mean  ?  It  means  that  by  holding  out  a  very 
moderate  inducement,  the  masters  of  primary 
schools  in  many  parts  of  the  country  have  been 
led  to  convert  them  into  little  foci  of  scientific 
instruction  ;  and  that  they  and  their  pupils  have 
contrived  to  find,  or  to  make,  time  enough  to  carry 
out  this  object  with  a  very  considerable  degree  of 
efficiency.  That  efficiency  will,  I  doubt  not,  be 
very  much  increased  as  the  system  becomes  known 
and  perfected,  even  with  the  very  limited  leisure 
left  to  masters  and  teachers  on  week-days.  And 
this  leads  me  to  ask,  Why  should  scientific  teaching 
be  limited  to  week-days  ? 

Ecclesiastically-minded  persons  are  in  the  habit 
of  calling  things  they  do  not  like  by  very  hard 
names,  and  I  should  not  wonder  if  they  brand 
the  proposition  I  am  about  to  make  as  blasphemous, 
and  worse.  But,  not  minding  this,  I  venture  to 
ask,  Would  there  really  be  anything  wrong  in 
using  part  of  Sunday  for  the  purpose  of  instructing 


V  NOTES   OF  AN   AFTER-DINNER  SPEECH 

those  who  have  no  other  leisure,  in  a  knowledge 
of  the  phenomena  of  Nature,  and  of  man's 
relation  to  Nature  ? 

I  should  like  to  see  a  scientific  Sunday-school 
in  every  parish,  not  for  the  purpose  of  superseding 
any  existing  means  of  teaching  the  people  the 
things  that  are  for  their  good,  but  side  by  side  with 
them.  I  cannot  but  think  that  there  is  room  for 
all  of  us  to  work  in  helping  to  bridge  over  the 
great  abyss  of  ignorance  which  lies  at  our  feet. 

And  if  any  of  the  ecclesiastical  persons  to  whom 
I  have  referred,  object  that  they  find  it  derogatory 
to  the  honour  of  the  God  whom  they  worship,  to 
awaken  the  minds  of  the  young  to  the  infinite 
wonder  and  majesty  of  the  works  which  they  pro- 
claim His,  and  to  teach  them  those  laws  which 
must  needs  be  His  laws,  and  therefore  of  all  things 
needful  for  man  to  know — I  can  only  recommend 
them  to  be  let  blood  and  put  on  low  diet.  There 
must  be  something  very  wrong  going  on  in  the 
instrument  of  logic  if  it  turns  out  such  conclusions 
from  such  premises. 


YI 

SCIENCE  AND  CULTURE 

[1880] 

Six  years  ago,  as  some  of  my  present  hearers  may 
remember,  I  had  the  privilege  of  addressing  a 
large  assemblage  of  the  inhabitants  of  this  city, 
who  had  gathered  together  to  do  honour  to  the 
memory  of  their  famous  townsman,  Joseph 
Priestley ; 1  and,  if  any  satisfaction  attaches  to 
posthumous  glory,  we  may  hope  that  the  manes 
of  the  burnt-out  philosopher  were  then  finally 
appeased. 

No  man,  however,  who  is  endowed  with  a  fair 
share  of  common  sense,  and  not  more  than  a  fair 
share  of  vanity,  will  identify  either  contemporary 
or  posthumous  fame  with  the  highest  good ;  and 
Priestley's  life  leaves  no  doubt  that  he,  at  any 
rate,  set  a  much  higher  value  upon  the  advance- 
ment of  knowledge,  and  the  promotion  of  that 
1  See  the  first  essay  in  this  volume. 


VI  SCIENCE   AND   CULTURE  135 

freedom  of  thought  which  is  at  once  the  cause 
and  the  consequence  of  intellectual  progress. 

Hence  I  am  disposed  to  think  that,  if  Priestley 
could  be  amongst  us  to-day,  the  occasion  of  our 
meeting  would  afford  him  even  greater  pleasure 
than  the  proceedings  which  celebrated  the  cen- 
tenary of  his  chief  discovery.  The  kindly  heart 
would  be  moved,  the  high  sense  of  social  duty 
would  be  satisfied,  by  the  spectacle  of  well-earned 
wealth,  neither  squandered  in  tawdry  luxury  and 
vainglorious  show,  nor  scattered  with  the  careless 
charity  which  blesses  neither  him  that  gives  nor 
him  that  takes,  but  expended  in  the  execution  of 
a  well-considered  plan  for  the  aid  of  present  and 
future  generations  of  those  who  are  willing  to  help 
themselves. 

We  shall  all  be  of  one  mind  thus  far.  But  it 
is  needful  to  share  Priestley's  keen  interest  in 
physical  science ;  and  to  have  learned,  as  he  had 
learned,  the  value  of  scientific  training  in  fields 
of  inquiry  apparently  far  remote  from  physical 
science ;  in  order  to  appreciate,  as  he  would  have 
appreciated,  the  value  of  the  noble  gift  which  Sir 
Josiah  Mason  has  bestowed  upon  the  inhabitants 
of  the  Midland  district. 

For  us  children  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
however,  the  establishment  of  a  college  under  the 
conditions  of  Sir  Josiah  Mason's  Trust,  has  a 
significance  apart  from  any  which  it  could  have 
possessed  a  hundred  years  ago.  It  appears  to  be 

69 


136  SCIENCE   AND   CULTURE  vi 

an  indication  that  we  are  reaching  the  crisis  of 
the  battle,  or  rather  of  the  long  series  of  battles, 
which  have  been  fought  over  education  in  a 
campaign  which  began  long  before  Priestley's 
time,  and  will  probably  not  be  finished  just  yet. 

In  the  last  century,  the  combatants  were  the 
champions  of  ancient  literature  on  the  one  side, 
and  those  of  modern  literature  on  the  other ;  but, 
some  thirty  years l  ago,  the  contest  became  com- 
plicated by  the  appearance  of  a  third  army,  ranged 
round  the  banner  of  Physical  Science. 

I  am  not  aware  that  any  one  has  authority  to 
speak  in  the  name  of  this  new  host.  For  it  must 
be  admitted  to  be  somewhat  of  a  guerilla  force, 
composed  largely  of  irregulars,  each  of  whom 
fights  pretty  much  for  his  own  hand.  But  the 
impressions  of  a  full  private,  who  has  seen  a  good 
deal  of  service  in  the  ranks,  respecting  the  present 
position  of  affairs  and  the  conditions  of  a  per- 
manent peace,  may  not  be  devoid  of  interest ;  and 
I  do  not  know  that  I  could  make  a  better  use  of 
the  present  opportunity  than  by  laying  them 
before  you. 

From  the  time  that  the  first  suggestion  to  intro- 
duce physical  science  into  ordinary  education  was 

1  The  advocacy  of  the  introduction  of  physical  science  into 
general  education  by  George  Combe  and  others  commenced  a 
good  deal  earlier  ;  but  the  movement  had  acquired  hardly  an j» 
practical  force  before  the  time  to  which  I  refer. 


VI  SCIENCE   AND  CULTURE  137 

timidly  whispered,  until  now,  the  advocates  of 
scientific  education  have  met  with  opposition  of 
two  kinds.  On  the  one  hand,  they  have  been 
pooh-poohed  by  the  men  of  business  who  pride 
themselves  on  being  the  representatives  of  practi- 
cality ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  they  have  been 
excommunicated  by  the  classical  scholars,  in  their 
capacity  of  Levites  in  charge  of  the  ark  of  culture 
arid  monopolists  of  liberal  education. 

The  practical  men  believed  that  the  idol  whom 
they  worship — rule  of  thumb — has  been  the  source 
of  the  past  prosperity,  and  will  suffice  for  the 
future  welfare  of  the  arts  and  manufactures. 
They  were  of  opinion  that  science  is  speculative 
rubbish  ;  that  theory  and  practice  have  nothing 
to  do  with  one  another ;  and  that  the  scientific 
habit  of  mind  is  an  impediment,  rather  than  an 
aid,  in  the  conduct  of  ordinary  affairs. 

I  have  used  the  past  tense  in  speaking  of  the 
practical  men — for  although  they  were  very 
formidable  thirty  years  ago,  I  am  not  sure  that 
the  pure  species  has  not  been  extirpated.  In  fact, 
so  far  as  mere  argument  goes,  they  have  been 
subjected  to  such  a  feu  d'enfer  that  it  is  a  miracle 
if  any  have  escaped.  But  I  have  remarked  that 
your  typical  practical  man  has  an  unexpected 
resemblance  to  one  of  Milton's  angels.  His 
spiritual  wounds,  such  as  are  inflicted  by  logical 
weapons,  may  be  as  deep  as  a  well  and  as  wide  as 
a  church  door,  but  beyond  shedding  a  few  drops 


138  SCIENCE   AND   CULTURE  VI 

of  ichor,  celestial  or  otherwise,  he  is  no  whit  the 
worse.  So,  if  any  of  these  opponents  be  left,  I 
will  not  waste  time  in  vain  repetition  of  the 
demonstrative  evidence  of  the  practical  value  of 
science ;  but  knowing  that  a  parable  will  some- 
times penetrate  where  syllogisms  fail  to  effect  an 
entrance,  I  will  offer  a  story  for  their  consideration. 

Once  upon  a  time,  a  boy,  with  nothing  to  de- 
pend upon  but  his  own  vigorous  nature,  was 
thrown  into  the  thick  of  the  struggle  for  existence 
in  the  midst  of  a  great  manufacturing  population. 
He  seems  to  have  had  a  hard  fight,  inasmuch  as, 
by  the  time  he  was  thirty  years  of  age,  his  total 
disposable  funds  amounted  to  twenty  pounds. 
Nevertheless,  middle  life  found  him  giving  proof 
of  his  comprehension  of  the  practical  problems  he 
had  been  roughly  called  upon  to  solve,  by  a  career 
of  remarkable  prosperity. 

Finally,  having  reached  old  age  with  its  well- 
earned  surroundings  of  "  honour,  troops  of  friends/' 
the  hero  of  my  story  bethought  himself  of  those 
who  were  making  a  like  start  in  life,  and  how  he 
could  stretch  out  a  helping  hand  to  them. 

After  long  and  anxious  reflection  this  successful 
practical  man  of  business  could  devise  nothing 
better  than  to  provide  them  with  the  means  of 
obtaining  "  sound,  extensive,  and  practical  scien- 
tific knowledge."  And  he  devoted  a  large  part 
of  his  wealth  and  five  years  of  incessant  work  to 
this  end. 


VI  SCIENCE   AND   CULTURE  131) 

I  need  not  point  the  moral  of  a  tale  which,  as 
the  solid  and  spacious  fabric  of  the  Scientific 
College  assures  us,  is  no  fable,  nor  can  anything 
which  I  could  say  intensify  the  force  of  this 
practical  answer  to  practical  objections. 

We  may  take  it  for  granted  then,  that,  in  the 
opinion  of  those  best  qualified  to  judge,  the 
diffusion  of  thorough  scientific  education  is  an 
absolutely  essential  condition  of  industrial  pro- 
gress;  and  that  the  College  which  has  been 
opened  to-day  will  confer  an  inestimable  boon 
upon  those  whose  livelihood  is  to  be  gained  by 
the  practise  of  the  arts  and  manufactures  of  the 
district. 

The  only  question  worth  discussion  is,  whether 
the  conditions,  under  which  the  work  of  the 
College  is  to  be  carried  out,  are  such  as  to  give  it 
the  best  possible  chance  of  achieving  permanent 
success. 

Sir  Josiah  Mason,  without  doubt  most  wisely, 
has  left  very  large  freedom  of  action  to  the 
trustees,  to  whom  he  proposes  ultimately  to 
commit  the  administration  of  the  College,  so  that 
they  may  be  able  to  adjust  its  arrangements  in 
accordance  with  the  changing  conditions  of  the 
future.  But,  with  respect  to  three  points,  he  has 
laid  most  explicit  injunctions  upon  both  adminis- 
trators and  teachers. 

Party  politics  are  forbidden  to  enter  into  the 


140  SCIENCE   AND   CULTURE  VI 

minds  of  either,  so  far  as  the  work  of  the  College 
is  concerned ;  theology  is  as  sternly  banished  from 
its  precincts ;  and  finally,  it  is  especially  declared 
that  the  College  shall  make  no  provision  for 
"  mere  literary  instruction  and  education." 

It  does  not  concern  me  at  present  to  dwell 
upon  the  first  two  injunctions  any  longer  than 
may  be  needful  to  express  my  full  conviction  of 
their  wisdom.  But  the  third  prohibition  brings 
us  face  to  face  with  those  other  opponents  of 
scientific  education,  who  are  by  no  means  in  the 
moribund  condition  of  the  practical  man,  but 
alive,  alert,  and  formidable. 

It  is  not  impossible  that  we  shall  hear  this 
express  exclusion  of  "  literary  instruction  and 
education "  from  a  College  which,  nevertheless, 
professes  to  give  a  high  and  efficient  education, 
sharply  criticised.  Certainly  the  time  was  that 
the  Levites  of  culture  would  have  sounded  their 
trumpets  against  its  walls  as  against  an  educa- 
tional Jericho. 

How  often  have  we  not  been  told  that  the 
study  of  physical  science  is  incompetent  to  confer 
culture ;  that  it  touches  none  of  the  higher 
problems  of  life;  and,  what  is  worse,  that  the 
continual  devotion  to  scientific  studies  tends  to 
generate  a  narrow  and  bigoted  belief  in  the 
applicability  of  scientific  methods  to  the  search 
after  truth  of  all  kinds  ?  How  frequently  one  has 
reason  to  observe  that  no  reply  to  a  troublesome 


VI  SCIENCE  AND   CULTURE  141 

argument  tells  so  well  as  calling  its  author  a 
"  mere  scientific  specialist."  And,  as  I  am  afraid 
it  is  not  permissible  to  speak  of  this  form  of 
opposition  to  scientific  education  in  the  past 
tense ;  may  we  not  expect  to  be  told  that  this, 
not  only  omission,  but  prohibition,  of  "  mere 
literary  instruction  and  education"  is  a  patent 
example  of  scientific  narrow-mindedness  ? 

I  am  not  acquainted  with  Sir  Josiah  Mason's 
reasons  for  the  action  which  he  has  taken ;  but  if, 
as  I  apprehend  is  the  case,  he  refers  to  the 
ordinary  classical  course  of  our  schools  and 
universities  by  the  name  of  "mere  literary  in- 
struction and  education,"  I  venture  to  offer 
sundry  reasons  of  my  own  in  support  of  that 
action. 

For  I  hold  very  strongly  by  two  convictions — • 
The  first  is,  that  neither  the  discipline  nor  the 
subject-matter  of  classical  education  is  of  such 
direct  value  to  the  student  of  physical  science  as 
to  justify  the  expenditure  of  valuable  time  upon 
either ;  and  the  second  is,  that  for  the  purpose  of 
attaining  real  culture,  an  exclusively  scientific 
education  is  at  least  as  effectual  as  an  exclusively 
literary  education. 

I  need  hardly  point  out  to  you  that  these 
opinions,  especially  the  latter,  are  diametrically 
opposed  to  those  of  the  great  majority  of  educated 
Englishmen,  influenced  as  they  are  by  school  and 
university  traditions.  In  their  belief,  culture  ia 


142  SCIENCE  AND   CULTURE  VI 

obtainable  only  by  a  liberal  education ;  and  a 
liberal  education  is  synonymous,  not  merely  with 
j  education  and  instruction  in  literature,  but  in  one 
particular  form  of  literature,  namely,  that  of 
Greek  and  Roman  antiquity.  They  hold  that 
the  man  who  has  learned  Latin  and  Greek, 
however  little,  is  educated;  while  he  who  is 
versed  in  other  branches  of  knowledge,  however 
deeply,  is  a  more  or  less  respectable  specialist,  not 
admissible  into  the  cultured  caste.  The  stamp  of 
the  educated  man,  the  University  degree,  is  not 
for  him. 

I  am  too  well  acquainted  with  the  generous 
catholicity  of  spirit,  the  true  sympathy  with 
scientific  thought,  which  pervades  the  writings 
of  our  chief  apostle  of  culture  to  identify  him 
with  these  opinions ;  and  yet  one  may  cull  from 
one  and  another  of  those  epistles  to  the  Philistines, 
which  so  much  delight  all  who  do  not  answer  to 
that  name,  sentences  which  lend  them  some 
support. 

Mr.  Arnold  tells  us  that  the  meaning  of  culture 
is  "  to  know  the  best  that  has  been  thought  and 
said  in  the  world."  It  is  the  criticism  of  life 
contained  in  literature.  That  criticism  regards 
"Europe  as  being,  for  intellectual  and  spiritual 
purposes,  one  great  confederation,  bound  to  a 
joint  action  and  working  to  a  common  result ;  and 
whose  members  have,  for  their  common  outfit, 
a  knowledge  of  Greek,  Roman,  and  Eastern 


VI  SCIENCE   AND  CULTURE  143 

antiquity,  and  of  one  another.  Special,  local,  and 
temporary  advantages  being  put  out  of  account, 
that  modern  nation  will  in  the  intellectual  and 
spiritual  sphere  make  most  progress,  which  most 
thoroughly  carries  out  this  programme.  And 
what  is  that  but  saying  that  we  too,  all  of  us,  as 
individuals,  the  more  thoroughly  we  carry  it  out, 
shall  make  the  more  progress  ?  " l 

We  have  here  to  deal  with  two  distinct 
propositions.  The  first,  that  a  criticism  of  life  is 
the  essence  of  culture ;  the  second,  that  literature, 
contains  the  materials  which  suffice  for  the  con- 
struction of  such  a  criticism. 

I  think  that  we  must  all  assent  to  the  first 
proposition.  For  culture  certainly  means  some- 
thing quite  different  from  learning  or  technical 
skill.  It  implies  the  possession  of  an  ideal,  and 
tn'e  habit  of  critically  estimating  the  value  of 
things  by  comparison  with  a  theoretic  standard. 
Perfect  culture  should  supply  a  complete  theory 
of  life,  based  upon  a  clear  knowledge  alike  of  its 
possibilities  and  of  its  limitations. 

But  we  may  agree  to  all  this,  and  yet  strongly 
dissent  from  the  assumption  that  literature  alone 
is  competent  to  supply  this  knowledge.  After 
having  learnt  all  that  Greek,  Roman,  and  Eastern 
antiquity  have  thought  and  said,  and  all  that 
modern  literatures  have  to  tell  us,  it  is  not  self- 
evident  that  we  have  laid  a  sufficiently  broad 
1  Essays  in  Criticism,  p.  37. 


144  SCIENCE  AND   CULTURE  vi 

and   deep   foundation   for   that   criticism    of  life, 
which  constitutes  culture. 

Indeed,  to  any  one  acquainted  with  the  scope  of 
physical  science,  it  is  not  at  all  evident.  Consid- 
ering progress  only  in  the  "  intellectual  and 
spiritual  sphere/1  I  find  myself  wholly  unable  to 
admit  that  either  nations  or  individuals  will  really 
advance,  if  their  common  outfit  draws  nothing  from 
the  stores  of  physical  science.  I  should  say  that 
an  army,  without  weapons  of  precision  and  with  no 
particular  base  of  operations,  might  more  hopefully 
enter  upon  a  campaign  on  the  Ehine,  than  a  man, 
devoid  of  a  knowledge  of  what  physical  science 
has  done  in  the  last  century,  upon  a  criticism  of  life. 

When  a  biologist  meets  with  an  anomaly,  he  in- 
stinctively turns  to  the  study  of  development  to 
clear  it  up.  The  rationale  of  contradictory  opinions 
may  with  equal  confidence  be  sought  in  history. 

It  is,  happily,  no  new  thing  that  Englishmen 
should  employ  their  wealth  in  building  and 
endowing  institutions  for  educational  purposes. 
But,  five  or  six  hundred  years  ago,  deeds  of 
foundation  expressed  or  implied  conditions  as 
nearly  as  possible  contrary  to  those  which  have 
been  thought  expedient  by  Sir  Josiah  Mason. 
That  is  to  say,  physical  science  was  practically 
ignored,  while  a  certain  literary  training  was  en- 
joined as  a  means  to  the  acquirement  of  knowledge 
which  was  essentially  theological. 


VI  SCIENCE   AND   CULTURE.  145 

The  reason  of  this  singular  contradiction  between 
the  actions  of  men  alike  animated  by  a  strong  and 
disinterested  desire  to  promote  the  welfare  of 
their  fellows,  is  easily  discovered. 

At  that  time,  in  fact,  if  any  one  desired  know- 
ledge beyond  such  as  could  be  obtained  by  his 
own  observation,  or  by  common  conversation,  his 
first  necessity  was  to  learn  the  Latin  language,  in- 
asmuch as  all  the  higher  knowledge  of  the  western 
world  was  contained  in  works  written  in  that 
language.  Hence,  Latin  grammar,  with  logic  and 
rhetoric,  studied  through  Latin,  were  the  funda- 
mentals of  education.  With  respect  to  the  sub- 
stance of  the  knowledge  imparted  through  this 
channel,  the  Jewish  and  Christian  Scriptures,  as 
interpreted  and  supplemented  by  the  Eomish 
Church,  were  held  to  contain  a  complete  and 
infallibly  true  body  of  information. 

Theological  dicta  were,  to  the  thinkers  of  those 
days,  that  which  the  axioms  and  definitions  of 
Euclid  are  to  the  geometers  of  these.  The 
business  of  the  philosophers  of  the  middle  ages 
war*  to  deduce  from  the  data  furnished  by  the 
theologians,  conclusions  in  accordance  with 
ecclesiastical  decrees.  They  were  allowed  the 
high  privilege  of  shov/ing,  by  logical  process, 
how  and  why  that  which  the  Church  said 
was  true,  must  be  true.  And  if  their  demon- 
strations fell  short  of  or  exceeded  this  limit,  the 
Church  was  maternally  ready  to  check  their 


146  SCIENCE  AND   CULTURE  VI 

aberrations;  if  need  were  by  the  help  of  the 
secular  arm. 

Between  the  two,  our  ancestors  were  furnished 
with  a  compact  and  complete  criticism  of  life. 
They  were  told  how  the  world  began  and  how  it 
would  end ;  they  learned  that  all  material  exist- 
ence was  but  a  base  and  insignificant  blot  upon 
the  fair  face  of  the  spiritual  world,  and  that  nature 
was,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  the  play-ground 
of  the  devil ;  they  learned  that  the  earth  is  the 
centre  of  the  visible  universe,  and  that  man  is  the 
cynosure  of  things  terrestrial ;  and  more  especially 
was  it  inculcated  that  the  course  of  nature  had 
no  fixed  order,  but  that  it  could  be,  and  constantly 
was,  altered  by  the  agency  of  innumerable  spiritual 
beings,  good  and  bad,  according  as  they  were 
moved  by  the  deeds  and  prayers  of  men.  The  sum 
and  substance  of  the  whole  doctrine  was  to  pro- 
duce the  conviction  that  the  only  thing  really 
worth  knowing  in  this  world  was  how  to  secure 
that  place  in  a  better  which,  under  certain  condi- 
tions, the  Church  promised. 

Our  ancestors  had  a  living  belief  in  this  theory 
of  life,  and  acted  upon  it  in  their  dealings  with 
education,  as  in  all  other  matters.  Culture  meant 
saintliness — after  the  fashion  of  the  saints  of  those 
days  ;  the  education  that  led  to  it  was,  of  necessity, 
theological ;  and  the  way  to  theology  lay  through 
Latin. 

That  the  study  of  nature — further  than  was  re- 


VI  SCIENCE  AND   CULTURE  14? 

quisite  for  the  satisfaction  of  everyday  wants — 
should  have  any  bearing  on  human  life  was  far 
from  the  thoughts  of  men  thus  trained.  Indeed, 
as  nature  had  been  cursed  for  man's  sake,  it  was 
an  obvious  conclusion  that  those  who  meddled  with 
nature  were  likely  to  come  into  pretty  close  contact 
with  Satan.  And,  if  any  born  scientific  investigator 
followed  his  instincts,  he  might  safely  reckon  upon 
earning  the  reputation,  and  probably  upon  suffer- 
ing the  fate,  of  a  sorcerer. 

Had  the  western  world  been  left  to  itself  in 
Chinese  isolation,  there  is  no  saying  how  long  this 
state  of  things  might  have  endured.  But,  happily, 
it  was  not  left  to  itself.  Even  earlier  than  the 
thirteenth  century,  the  development  of  Moorish 
civilisation  in  Spain  and  the  great  movement  of 
the  Crusades  had  introduced  the  leaven  which, 
from  that  day  to  this,  has  never  ceased  to  work. 
At  first,  through  the  intermediation  of  Arabic 
translations,  afterwards  by  the  study  of  the  origi- 
nals, the  western  nations  of  Europe  became 
acquainted  with  the  writings  of  the  ancient  philo- 
sophers and  poets,  and,  in  time,  with  the  whole  of 
the  vast  literature  of  antiquity. 

Whatever  there  was  of  high  intellectual  as- 
piration or  dominant  capacity  in  Italy,  France, 
Germany,  and  England,  spent  itself  for  centuries 
in  taking  possession  of  the  rich  inheritance  left 
by  the  dead  civilisations  of  Greece  and  Rome. 
Marvellously  aided  by  the  invention  of  printing, 


148  SCIENCE   AND   CULTURE  vi 

classical  learning  spread  and  flourished.  Those 
who  possessed  it  prided  themselves  on  having 
attained  the  highest  culture  then  within  the  reach 
of  mankind. 

And  justly.  For,  saving  Dante  on  his  solitary 
pinnacle,  there  was  no  figure  in  modern  literature 
at  the  time  of  the  Renascence  to  compare  with 
the  men  of  antiquity  ;  there  was  no  art  to  com- 
pete with  their  sculpture  ;  there  was  no  physical 
science  but  that  which  Greece  had  created. 
Above  all,  there  was  no  other  example  of  perfect 
intellectual  freedom — of  the  unhesitating  accept- 
ance of  reason  as  the  sole  guide  to  truth  and  the 
supreme  arbiter  of  conduct. 

The  new  learning  necessarily  soon  exerted  a 
profound  influence  upon  education.  The  language 
of  the  monks  and  schoolmen  seemed  little  better 
than  gibberish  to  scholars  fresh  from  Virgil  and 
Cicero,  and  the  study  of  Latin  was  placed  upon  a 
new  foundation.  Moreover,  Latin  itself  ceased  to 
afford  the  sole  key  to  knowledge.  The  student 
who  sought  the  highest  thought  of  antiquity, 
found  only  a  second-hand  reflection  of  it  in 
Roman  literature,  and  turned  his  face  to  the  full 
light  of  the  Greeks.  And  after  a  battle,  not 
altogether  dissimilar  to  that  which  is  at  present 
being  fought  over  the  teaching  of  physical 
science,  the  study  of  Greek  was  recognised  as  an 
essential  element  of  all  higher  education. 

Thus  the  Humanists,  as  they  were  called,  won 


VI  SCIENCE   AND   CULTURE  149 

the  day ;  and  the  grea,t  reform  which  they 
effected  was  of  incalculable  service  to  mankind. 
But  the  Nemesis  of  all  reformers  is  finality ;  and 
the  reformers  of  education,  like  those  of  religion, 
fell  into  the  profound,  however  common,  error  of 
mistaking  the  beginning  for  the  end  of  the  work 
of  reformation. 

The  representatives  of  the  Humanists,  in  the 
nineteenth  century,  take  their  stand  upon  classical 
education  as  the  sole  avenue  to  culture,  as  firmly 
as  if  we  were  still  in  the  age  of  Renascence. 
Yet,  surely,  the  present  intellectual  relations  of 
the  modern  and  the  ancient  worlds  are  profoundly 
different  from  those  which  obtained  three  cen- 
turies ago.  Leaving  aside  the  existence  of  a 
great  and  characteristically  modern  literature,  of 
modern  painting,  and,  especially,  of  modern 
music,  there  is  one  feature  of  the  present  state  of 
the  civilised  world  which  separates  it  more  widely 
from  the  Renascence,  than  the  Renascence  was 
separated  from  the  middle  ages. 

This  distinctive  character  of  our  own  times  lies 
in  the  vast  and  constantly  increasing  part  whicli 
is  played  by  natural  knowledge.  Not  only  is  our 
daily  life  shaped  by  it,  not  only  does  the  pros- 
perity of  millions  of  men  depend  upon  it,  but 
our  whole  theory  of  life  has  long  been  influenced, 
consciously  or  unconsciously,  by  the  general  con- 
ceptions of  the  universe,  which  have  been  forced 
upon  us  by  physical  science. 


150  SCIENCE  AND  CULTURE  vi 

In  fact,  the  most  elementary  acquaintance  with 
the  results  of  scientific  investigation  shows  us 
that  they  offer  a  broad  and  striking  contradiction 
to  the  opinion  so  implicitly  credited  and  taught  in 
the  middle  ages. 

The  notions  of  the  beginning  and  the  end  of 
the  world  entertained  by  our  forefathers  are  110 
longer  credible.  It  is  very  certain  that  the  earth 
is  not  the  chief  body  in  the  material  universe, 
and  that  the  world  is '  not  subordinated  to  man's 
use.  It  is  even  more  certain  that  nature  is  the 
expression  of  a  definite  order  with  which  nothing 
interferes,  and  that  the  chief  business  of  mankind 
is  to  learn  that  order  and  govern  themselves 
accordingly.  Moreover  this  scientific  "criticism 
of  life"  presents  itself  to  us  with  different 
credentials  from  any  other.  It  appeals  not  to 
authority,  nor  to  what  anybody  may  have  thought 
or  said,  but  to  nature.  It  admits  that  all  our 
interpretations  of  natural  fact  are  more  or  less 
imperfect  and  symbolic,  and  bids  the  learner  seek 
for  truth  not  among  words  but  among  things.  It 
warns  us  that  the  assertion  which  outstrips 
evidence  is  not  only  a  blunder  but  a  crime. 

The  purely  classical  education  advocated  by 
the  representatives  of  the  Humanists  in  our  day, 
gives  no  inkling  of  all  this.  A  man  may  be  a 
better  scholar  than  Erasmus,  and  know  no  more 
of  the  chief  causes  of  the  present  intellectual 
fermentation  than  Erasmus  did.  Scholarly  and 


VI  SCIENCE   AND   CULTURE  l.'l 

pious  persons,  worthy  of  all  respect,  favour  us 
with  allocutions  upon  the  sadness  of  the  antagon- 
ism of  science  to  their  mediaeval  way  of  thinking, 
which  betray  an  ignorance  of  the  first  principles 
of  scientific  investigation,  an  incapacity  for  under- 
standing what  a  man  of  science  means  by  veracity, 
and  an  unconsciousness  of  the  weight  of  estab- 
lished scientific  truths,  which  is  almost  comical. 

There  is  no  great  force  in  the  tu  quogue  argu- 
ment, or  else  the  advocates  of  scientific  education 
might  fairly  enough  retort  upon  the  modern 
Humanists  that  they  may  be  learned  specialists, 
but  that  they  possess  no  such  sound  foundation 
for  a  criticism  of  life  as  deserves  the  name  of 
culture.  And,  indeed,  if  we  were  disposed  to  be 
cruel,  we  might  urge  that  the  Humanists  have 
brought  this  reproach  upon  themselves,  not 
because  they  are  too  full  of  the  spirit  of  the 
ancient  Greek,  but  because  they  lack  it. 

The  period  of  the  Renascence  is  commonly 
called  that  of  the  "  Revival  of  Letters,"  as  if  the 
influences  then  brought  to  bear  upon  the  mind  of 
Western  Europe  had  been  wholly  exhausted  in 
the  field  of  literature.  I  think  it  is  very 
commonly  forgotten  that  the  revival  of  science, 
effected  by  the  same  agency,  although  less  con- 
spicuous, was  not  less  momentous. 

In  fact,  the  few  and  scattered  students  of 
nature  of  that  day  picked  up  the  clue  to  her 
secrets  exactly  as  it  fell  from  the  hands  of  the 
70 


152  SCIENCE  AND   CULTURE  VI 

Greeks  a  thousand  years  before.  The  foundations 
of  mathematics  were  so  well  laid  by  them,  that 
our  children  learn  their  geometry  from  a  book 
written  for  the  schools  of  Alexandria  two  thou- 
sand years  ago.  Modern  astronomy  is  the  natural 
continuation  and  development  of  the  work  of 
Hipparchus  and  of  Ptolemy  ;  modern  physics  of 
that  of  Democritus  and  of  Archimedes;  it  was 
long  before  modern  biological  science  outgrew 
the  knowledge  bequeathed  to  us  by  Aristotle,  by 
Theophrastus,  and  by  Galen. 

We  cannot  know  all  the  best  thoughts  and 
sayings  of  the  Greeks  unless  we  know  what  they 
thought  about  natural  phenomena.  We  cannot 
fully  apprehend  their  criticism  of  life  unless  we 
understand  the  extent  to  which  that  criticism  was 
affected  by  scientific  conceptions.  We  falsely  pre- 
tend to  be  the  inheritors  of  their  culture,  unless 
we  are  penetrated,  as  the  best  minds  among  them 
were,  with  an  unhesitating  faith  that  the  free  em- 
ployment of  reason,  in  accordance  with  scientific 
method,  is  the  sole  method  of  reaching  truth. 

Thus  I  venture  to  think  that  the  pretensions  of 
our  modern  Humanists  to  the  possession  of  the 
monopoly  of  culture  and  to  the  exclusive  inherit- 
ance of  the  spirit  of  antiquity  must  be  abated,  if 
not  abandoned.  But  I  should  be  very  sorry  that 
anything  I  have  said  should  be  taken  to  imply  a 
desire  on  my  part  to  depreciate  the  value  of 
classical  education,  as  it  might  be  and  as  it  some- 


VI  SCIENCE   AND   CULTURE  153 

times  is.  The  native  capacities  of  mankind  vary 
no  less  than  their  opportunities  ;  and  while  culture 
is  one,  the  road  by  which  one  man  may  best 
reach  it  is  widely  different  from  that  which  is 
most  advantageous  to  another.  Again,  while 
scientific  education  is  yet  inchoate  and  tentative, 
classical  education  is  thoroughly  well  organised 
upon  the  practical  experience  of  generations  of 
teachers.  So  that,  given  ample  time  for  learning 
and  destination  for  ordinary  life,  or  for  a  literary 
career,  I  do  not  think  that  a  young  Englishman 
in  search  of  culture  can  do  better  than  follow  the 
course  usually  marked  out  for  him,  supplementing 
its  deficiencies  by  his  own  efforts. 

But  for  those  who  mean  to  make  science  their 
serious  occupation  ;  or  who  intend  to  follow  the 
profession  of  medicine  ;  or  who  have  to  enter  early 
upon  the  business  of  life;  for  all  these,  in  my 
opinion,  classical  education  is  a  mistake  ;  and  it  is 
for  this  reason  that  I  am  glad  to  see  "mere 
literary  education  and  instruction  "  shut  out  from 
the  curriculum  of  Sir  Josiah  Mason's  College, 
seeing  that  its  inclusion  would  probably  lead  to 
the  introduction  of  the  ordinary  smattering  of 
Latin  and  Greek. 

Nevertheless,  I  am  the  last  person  to  question 
the  importance  of  genuine  literary  education,  or 
to  suppose  that  intellectual  •  culture  can  be  com- 
plete without  it.  An  exclusively  scientific  training 
will  bring  about  a  mental  twist  as  surely  as  an 


154  SCIENCE  AND  CULTURE  VI 

exclusively  literary  training.  The  value  of  the 
cargo  does  not  compensate  for  a  ship's  being  out 
of  trim  ;  and  I  should  be  very  sorry  to  think  that 
the  Scientific  College  would  turn  out  none  but 
lop-sided  men. 

There  is  no  need,  however,  that  such  a  catas- 
trophe should  happen.  Instruction  in  English, 
French,  and  German  is  provided,  and  thus  the 
three  greatest  literatures  of  the  modern  world  are 
made  accessible  to  the  student. 

French  and  German,  and  especially  the  latter 
language,  are  absolutely  indispensable  to  those 
who  desire  full  knowledge  in  any  department  of 
science.  But  even  supposing  that  the  knowledge 
of  these  languages  acquired  is  not  more  than 
sufficient  for  purely  scientific  purposes,  every 
Englishman  has,  in  his  native  tongue,  an  almost 
perfect  instrument  of  literary  expression ;  and,  in 
his  own  literature,  models  of  every  kind  of  literary 
excellence.  If  an  Englishman  cannot  get  literary 
culture  out  of  his  Bible,  his  Shakespeare,  his 
Milton,  neither,  in  my  belief,  will  the  profoundest 
study  of  Homer  and  Sophocles,  Virgil  and  Horace, 
give  it  to  him. 

Thus,  since  the  constitution  of  the  College 
makes  sufficient  provision  for  literary  as  veil  as 
for  scientific  education,  and  since  artistic  iustruc- 
tion  is  also  contemplated,  it  seems  to  me  that  a 
fairly  complete  culture  is  offered  to  all  who  are 
willing  to  take  advantage  of  it. 


vi  SCIENCE   AND   CULTURE  155 

But  I  am  not  sure  that  at  this  point  the  "prac- 
tical "  man,  scotched  but  not  slain,  may  ask  what 
all  this  talk  about  culture  has  to  do  with  an 
Institution,  the  object  of  which  is  defined  to  be 
"  to  promote  the  prosperity  of  the  manufactures  and 
the  industry  of  the  country."  He  may  suggest 
that  what  is  wanted  for  this  end  is  not  culture, 
nor  even  a  purely  scientific  discipline,  but  simply 
a  knowledge  of  applied  science. 

I  often  wish  that  this  phrase,  "  applied  science," 
had  never  been  invented.  For  it  suggests  that 
there  is  a  sort  of  scientific  knowledge  of  direct 
practical  use,  which  can  be  studied  apart  from 
another  sort  of  scientific  knowledge,  which  is  of 
no  practical  utility,  and  which  is  termed  "  pure 
science."  But  there  is  no  more  complete  fallacy 
than  this.  What  people  call  applied  science  is 
nothing  but  the  application  of  pure  science  to  par- 
ticular classes  of  problems.  It  consists  of  deduc- 
tions from  those  general  principles,  established  by 
reasoning  and  observation,  which  constitute  pure 
science.  No  one  can  safely  make  these  deductions 
until  he  has  a  firm  grasp  of  the  principles  ;  and  he 
can  obtain  that  grasp  only  by  personal  experience 
of  the  operations  of  observation  and  of  reasoning 
on  which  they  are  founded. 

Almost  all  the  processes  employed  in  the  arts 
and  manufactures  fall  within  the  range  either  of 
physics  or  of  chemistry.  In  order  to  improve 
them,  one  must  thoroughly  understand  them  ;  and 


156  SCIENCE   AND   CULTURE  YI 

no  one  has  a  chance  of  really  understanding  them, 
unless  he  has  obtained  that  mastery  of  principles  and 
that  habit  of  dealing  with  facts,  which  is  given  by 
long-continued  and  well-directed  purely  scientific 
training  in  the  physical  and  the  chemical  labora- 
tory. So  that  there  really  is  no  question  as  to 
the  necessity  of  purely  scientific  discipline,  even 
if  the  work  of  the  College  were  limited  by  the  nar- 
rowest interpretation  of  its  stated  aims. 

And,  as  to  the  desirableness  of  a  wider  culture 
than  that  yielded  by  science  alone,  it  is  to  be  recol- 
lected that  the  improvement  of  manufacturing 
processes  is  only  one  of  the  conditions  which  con- 
tribute to  the  prosperity  of  industry.  Industry  is 
a  means  and  not  an  end  ;  and  mankind  work  only 
to  get  something  which  they  want.  What  that 
something  is  depends  partly  on  their  innate,  and 
partly  on  their  acquired,  desires. 

If  the  wealth  resulting  from  prosperous  industry 
is  to  be  spent  upon  the  gratification  of  unworthy 
desires,  if  the  increasing  perfection  of  manufac- 
turing processes  is  to  be  accompanied  by  an  in- 
creasing debasement  of  those  who  carry  them  on,  I 
do  not  see  the  good  of  industry  and  prosperity. 

Now  it  is  perfectly  true  that  men's  views  of 
,  what  is  desirable  depend  upon  their  characters; 
and  that  the  innate  proclivities  to  which  we  give 
that  name  are  not  touched  by  any  amount  of 
instruction.  But  it  does  not  follow  that  even  mere 
intellectual  education  may  not,  to  an  indefinite 


rt  SCIENCE   AND   CULTURE  157 

extent,  modify  the  practical  manifestation  of  the 
characters  of  men  in  their  actions,  by  supplying 
them  with  motives  unknown  to  the  ignorant.  A 
pleasure-loving  character  will  have  pleasure  of  some 
sort ;  but,  if  you  give  him  the  choice,  he  may  pre- 
fer pleasures  which  do  not  degrade  him  to  those 
which  do.  And  this  choice  is  offered  to  every  man, 
who  possesses  in  literary  or  artistic  culture  a  never- 
failing  source  of  pleasures,  which  are  neither 
withered  by  age,  nor  staled  by  custom,  nor 
embittered  in  the  recollection  by  the  pangs  of 
self-reproach. 

If  the  Institution  opened  to-day  fulfils  the 
intention  of  its  founder,  the  picked  intelligences 
among  all  classes  of  the  population  of  this  district 
will  pass  through  it.  No  child  born  in  Birming- 
ham, henceforward,  if  he  have  the  capacity  to  profit 
by  the  opportunities  offered  to  him,  first  in  the 
primary  and  other  schools,  and  afterwards  in  the 
Scientific  College,  need  fail  to  obtain,  not  merely 
the  instruction,  but  the  culture  most  appropriate 
to  the  conditions  of  his  life. 

Within  these  walls,  the  future  employer  and  the 
future  artisan  may  sojourn  together  for  a  while, 
and  carry,  through  all  their  lives,  the  stamp  of  the 
influences  then  brought  to  bear  upon  them.  Hence, 
it  is  not  beside  the  mark  to  remind  you,  that  the 
prosperity  of  industry  depends  not  merely  upon  the 
improvement  of  manufacturing  processes,  not 
merely  upon  the  ennobling  of  the  individual  char- 


158  SCIENCE   AND   CULTURE  vi 

acter,  but  upon  a  third  condition,  namely,  a  clear 
understanding  of  the  conditions  of  social  life,  on 
the  part  of  both  the  capitalist  and  the  operative, 
and  their  agreement  upon  common  principles  of 
social  action.  They  must  learn  that  social  phse- 
nomena  are  as  much  the  expression  of  natural  laws 
as  any  others  ;  that  no  social  arrangements  can  be 
permanent  unless  they  harmonise  with  the  require- 
ments of  social  statics  and  dynamics ;  and  that,  in 
the  nature  of  things,  there  is  an  arbiter  whose 
decisions  execute  themselves. 

But  this  knowledge  is  only  to  be  obtained  by  the 
application  of  the  methods  of  investigation  adopted 
in  physical  researches  to  the  investigation  of  the 
phenomena  of  society.  Hence,  I  confess,  I  should 
like  to  see  one  addition  made  to  the  excellent 
scheme  of  education  propounded  for  the  College, 
in  the  shape  ,of  provision  for  the  teaching  of 
Sociology.  For  though  we  are  all  agreed  that 
party  politics  are  to  have  no  place  in  the  instruc- 
tion of  the  College  ;  yet  in  this  country,  practically 
governed  as  it  is  now  by  universal  suffrage,  every 
man  who  does  his  duty  must  exercise  political 
functions.  And,  if  the  evils  which  are  inseparable 
from  the  good  of  political  liberty  are  to  be  checked, 
if  the  perpetual  oscillation  of  nations  between 
anarchy  and  despotism  is  to  be  replaced  by  the 
steady  march  of  self-restraining  freedom ;  it  will 
be  because  men  will  gradually  bring  themselves  to 
deal  with  political,  as  they  now  deal  with  scientific 


VI  SCIENCE   AND   CULTURE  159 

questions ;  to  be  as  ashamed  of  undue  haste  and  par- 
tisan prejudice  in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other ; 
and  to  believe  that  the  machinery  of  society  is  at 
least  as  delicate  as  that  of  a  spinning-jenny,  and  as 
little  likely  to  be  improved  by  the  meddling  of 
those  who  have  not  taken  the  trouble  to  master  the 
principles  of  its  action. 

In  conclusion,  I  am  sure  that  I  make  myself  the 
mouthpiece  of  all  present  in  offering  to  the  vener- 
able founder  of  the  Institution,  which  now 
commences  its  beneficent  career,  our  congratula- 
tions on  the  completion  of  his  work ;  and  in 
expressing  the  conviction,  that  the  remotest 
posterity  will  point  to  it  as  a  crucial  instance  of 
the  wisdom  which  natural  piety  leads  all  men  to 
ascribe  to  their  ancestors. 


VII 

ON  SCIENCE  AND  ART  IN  RELATION 
TO  EDUCATION 

[1882] 

WHEN  a  man  is  honoured  by  such  a  request  as 
that  which  reached  me  from  the  authorities  of 
your  institution  some  time  ago,  I  think  the  first 
thing  that  occurs  to  him  is  that  which  occurred  to 
those  who  were  bidden  to  the  feast  in  the  Gospel 
— to  begin  to  make  an  excuse ;  and  probably  all 
the  excuses  suggested  on  that  famous  occasion 
crop  up  in  his  mind  one  after  the  other,  including 
his  "  having  married  a  wife,"  as  reasons  for  not 
doing  what  he  is  asked  to  do.  But,  in  my  own 
case,  and  on  this  particular  occasion,  there  were 
other  difficulties  of  a  sort  peculiar  to  the  time,  and 
more  or  less  personal  to  myself;  because  I  felt 
that,  if  I  came  amongst  you,  I  should  be  expected, 
and,  indeed,  morally  compelled,  to  speak  upon  the 
subject  of  Scientific  Education.  And  then  there 


vii  SCIENCE  AND  ART  AND   EDUCATION        161 

arose  in  my  mind  the  recollection  of  a  fact,  which 
probably  no  one  here  but  myself  remembers ; 
namely,  that  some  fourteen  years  ago  I  was  the 
guest  of  a  citizen  of  yours,  who  bears  the  honoured 
name  of  Rathbone,  at  a  very  charming  and 
pleasant  dinner  given  by  the  Philomathic  Society ; 
and  I  there  and  then,  and  in  this  very  city,  made 
a  speech  upon  the  topic  of  Scientific  Education. 
Under  these  circumstances,  you  see,  one  runs  two 
dangers — the  first,  of  repeating  one's  self,  although  I 
may  fairly  hope  that  everybody  has  forgotten  the 
fact  I  have  just  now  mentioned,  except  myself ; 
and  the  second,  and  even  greater  difficulty,  is  the 
danger  of  saying  something  different  from  what 
one  said  before,  because  then,  however  forgotten 
your  previous  speech  may  be,  somebody  finds  out 
its  existence,  and  there  goes  on  that  process  so 
hateful  to  members  of  Parliament,  which  may  be 
denoted  by  the  term  "  Hansardisation."  Under 
these  circumstances,  I  came  to  the  conclusion  that 
the  best  thing  I  could  do  was  to  take  the  bull  by 
the  horns,  and  to  "  Hansardise  "  myself, — to  put 
before  you,  in  the  briefest  possible  way,  the  three 
or  four  propositions  which  I  endeavoured  to 
support  on  the  occasion  of  the  speech  to  which  I 
have  referred  ;  and  then  to  ask  myself,  supposing 
you  were  asking  me,  whether  I  had  anything  to 
retract,  or  to  modify,  in  them,  in  virtue  of  the 
increased  -experience,  and,  let  us  charitably  hope, 
the  increased  wisdom  of  an  added  fourteen  years. 


SCIENCE  AND   ART  AND   EDUCATION  VII 

Now,  the  points  to  which  I  directed  particular 
attention  on  that  occasion  were  these  :  in  the  first 
place,  that  instruction  in  physical  science  supplies 
information  of  a  character  of  especial  value,  both 
in  a  practical  and  a  speculative  point  of  view — 
information  which  cannot  be  obtained  otherwise; 
and,  in  the  second  place,  that,  as  educational  dis- 
cipline, it  supplies,  in  a  better  form  than  any  other 
study  can  supply,  exercise  in  a  special  form  of 
logic,  and  a  peculiar  method  of  testing  the  validity 
of  our  processes  of  'inquiry.  I  said  further,  that, 
even  at  that  time,  a  great  and  increasing  attention 
was  being  paid  to  physical  science  in  our  schools 
and  colleges,  and  that,  most  assuredly,  such 
attention  must  go  on  growing  and  increasing,  until 
education  in  these  matters  occupied  a  very  much 
larger  share  of  the  time  which  is  given  to  teaching 
and  training,  than  had  been  the  case  heretofore.  And 
I  threw  all  the  strength  of  argumentation  of  which 
I  was  possessed  into  the  support  of  these  proposi- 
tions. But  I  venture  to  remind  you,  also,  of  some 
other  words  I  used  at  that  time,  and  which  I  ask 
permission  to  read  to  you.  They  were  these  : — 
"  There  are  other  forms  of  culture  besides  physical 
science,  and  I  should  be  profoundly  sorry  to  see 
the  fact  forgotten,  or  even  to  observe  a  tendency 
to  starve  or  cripple  literary  or  aesthetic  culture  for 
the  sake  of  science.  Such  a  narrow  view  of  the 
nature  of  education  has  nothing  to  do  with  my 
firm  conclusion  that  a  complete  and  thorough 


VII  SCIENCE   AND    ART   AND   EDUCATION        1G3 

scientific  culture  ought  to  be  introduced  into  all 
schools." 

I  say  I  desire,  in  commenting  upon  these  various 
points,  and  judging  them  as  fairly  as  I  can  by 
the  light  of  increased  experience,  to  particularly 
emphasise  this  last,  because  I  am  told,  although  I 
assuredly  do  not  know  it  of  my  own  knowledge 
— though  I  think  if  the  fact  were  so  I  ought  to 
know  it,  being  tolerably  well  acquainted  with  that 
which  goes  on  in  the  scientific  world,  and  which 
has  gone  on  there  for  the  last  thirty  years — that 
there  is  a  kind  of  sect,  or  horde,  of  scientific  Goths 
and  Vandals,  who  think  it  would  be  proper  and 
desirable  to  sweep  away  all  other  forms  of  culture 
and  instruction,  except  those  in  physical  science, 
and  to  make  them  the  universal  and  exclusive,  or, 
at  any  rate,  the  dominant  training  of  the  human 
mind  of  the  future  generation.  This  is  not  my 
view — I  do  not  believe  that  it  is  anybody's  view, 
— but  it  is  attributed  to  those  who,  like  myself, 
advocate  scientific  education.  I  therefore  dwell 
strongly  upon  the  point,  and  I  beg  you  to  believe 
that  the  words  I  have  just  now  read  were  by  no 
means  intended  by  me  as  a  sop  to  the  Cerberus  of 
culture.  I  have  not  been  in  the  habit  of  offering 
sops  to  any  kind  of  Cerberus ;  but  it  was  an 
expression  of  profound  conviction  on  my  own  part 
— a  conviction  forced  upon  me  not  only  by  my 
mental  constitution,  but  by  the  lessons  of  what  is 


164        SCIENCE   AND   ART   AND  EDUCATION  vn 

now  becoming  a    somewhat   long   experience   of 
varied  conditions  of  life. 

I  am  not  about  to  trouble  you  with  my  auto- 
biography; the  omens  are  hardly  favourable,  at 
present,  for  work  of  that  kind.  But  I  should  like 
if  I  may  do  so  without  appearing,  what  I  earnestly 
desire  not  to  be,  egotistical, — I  should  like  to  make 
it  clear  to  you,  that  such  notions  as  these,  which 
are  sometimes  attributed  to  me,  are,  as  I  have  said, 
inconsistent  with  my  mental  constitution,  and  still 
more  inconsistent  with  the  upshot  of  the  teaching 
of  my  experience.  For  I  can  certainly  claim  for 
myself  that  sort  of  mental  temperament  which  can 
say  that  nothing  human  comes  amiss  to  it.  I 
have  never  yet  met  with  any  branch  of  human 
knowledge  which  I  have  found  unattractive — 
which  it  would  not  have  been  pleasant  to  me  to 
follow,  so  far  as  I  could  go ;  and  I  have  yet  to 
meet  with  any  form  of  art  in  which  it  has 
not  been  possible  for  me  to  take  as  acute  a 
pleasure  as,  I  believe,  it  is  possible  for  men  to  take. 

And  with  respect  to  the  circumstances  of  life,  it 
so  happens  that  it  has  been  my  fate  to  know  many 
lands  and  many  climates,  and  to  be  familiar,  by 
personal  experience,  with  almost  every  form  of 
society,  from  the  uncivilised  savage  of  Papua 
and  Australia  and  the  civilised  savages  of  the 
slums  and  dens  of  the  poverty-stricken  parts  of 
great  cities,  to  those  who  perhaps,  are  occasionally 


VII          SCIENCE   AND   ART   AND   EDUCATION        1G5 

the  somewhat  over-civilised  members  of  our 
upper  ten  thousand.  And  I  have  never  found,  in 
any  of  these  conditions  of  life,  a  deficiency  of 
something  which  was  attractive.  Savagery  has  its 
pleasures,  I  assure  you,  as  well  as  civilisation, 
and  I  may  even  venture  to  confess — if  you  will 
not  let  a  whisper  of  the  matter  get  back  to 
London,  where  I  am  known — I  am  even  fain  to 
confess,  that  sometimes  in  the  din  and  throng  of 
what  is  called  "  a  brilliant  reception "  the  vision 
crosses  my  mind  of  waking  up  from  the  soft  plank 
which  had  afforded  me  satisfactory  sleep  during 
the  hours  of  the  night,  in  the  bright  dawn  of  a 
tropical  morning,  when  my  comrades  were  yet 
asleep,  when  every  sound  was  hushed,  except  the 
little  lap-lap  of  the  ripples  against  the  sides  of  the 
boat,  and  the  distant  twitter  of  the  sea-bird  on  the 
reef.  And  when  that  vision  crosses  my  mind,  I 
am  free  to  confess  I  desire  to  be  back  in  -the  boat 
again.  So  that,  if  I  share  with  those  strange 
persons  to  whose  asserted,  but  still  hypothetical 
existence  I  have  referred,  the  want  of  appreciation 
of  forms  of  culture  other  than  the  pursuit  of  phy- 
sical science,  all  I  can  say  is,  that  it  is,  in  spite  of 
my  constitution,  and  in  spite  of  my  experience, 
that  such  should  be  my  fate. 

But  now  let  me  turn  to  another  point,  or  rather 
to  two  other  points,  with  which  I  propose  to 
occupy  myself.  How  far  does  the  experience  of 
the  last  fourteen  years  justify  the  estimate  which 


166       SCIENCE  AND  ART  AND   EDUCATION          vn 

I  ventured  to  put  forward  of  the  value  of  scientific 
culture,  and  of  the  share — the  increasing  share — 
which  it  must  take  in  ordinary  education  ? 
Happily,  in  respect  to  that  matter,  you  need  not 
rely  upon  my  testimony.  In  the  last  half-dozen  num- 
bers of  the  "  Journal  of  Education,"  you  will  find 
a  series  of  very  interesting  and  remarkable  papers, 
by  gentlemen  who  are  practically  engaged  in  the 
business  of  education  in  our  great  public  and 
other  schools,  telling  us  what  is  doing  in  these 
schools,  and  what  is  their  experience  of  the  results 
of  scientific  education  there,  so  far  as  it  has  gone. 
I  am  not  going  to  trouble  you  with  an  abstract  of 
those  papers,  which  are  well  worth  your  study  in 
their  fulness  and  completeness,  but  I  have  copied 
out  one  remarkable  passage,  because  it  seems  to 
me  so  entirely  to  bear  out  what  I  have  formerly 
ventured  to  say  about  the  value  of  science,  both  as 
to  its  subject-matter  and  as  to  the  discipline  which 
the  learning  of  science  involves.  It  is  from  a 
paper  by  Mr.  Worthington — one  of  the  masters  at 
Clifton,  the  reputation  of  which  school  you  know 
well,  and  at  the  head  of  which  is  an  old  friend  of 
mine,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Wilson — to  whom  much  credit 
is  due  for  being  one  of  the  first,  as  I  can  say 
from  my  own  knowledge,  to  take  up  this  question 
and  work  it  into  practical  shape.  What  Mr. 
Worthington  says  is  this : — 

"  It  is  not  easy  to  exaggerate  the  importance  of  the  informa- 
tion imparted  by  certain  branches  of  science  ;  it  modifies  the 


VII  SCIENCE   AND   ART  AND   EDUCATION        167 

whole  criticism  of  life  made  in  maturer  years.  Tlie  study  has 
often,  on  a  mass  of  boys,  a  curtain  influence  which,  I  think,  was 
hardly  anticipated,  and  to  which  a  good  deal  of  value  must  bo 
attached — an  influence  as  much  moral  as  intellectual,  which  is 
shown  in  the  increased  and  increasing  respect  for  precision  of 
statement,  and  for  that  form  of  veracity  which  consists  in  the 
acknowledgment  of  difficulties.  It  produces  a  real  effect  to  find 
that  Nature  cannot  be  imposed  upon,  and  the  attention  given 
to  experimental  lectures,  at  first  superficial  and  curious  only, 
soon  becomes  minute,  serious,  and  practical." 

Ladies  and  gentlemen,  I  could  not  have  chosen 
better  words  to  express— in  fact,  I  have,  in  other 
words,  expressed  the  same  conviction  in  former 
days — what  the  influence  of  scientific  teaching,  if 
properly  carried  out,  must  be. 

But  now  comes  the  question  of  properly  carrying 
it  out,  because,  when  I  hear  the  value  of  school 
teaching  in  physical  science  disputed,  my  first  im- 
pulse is  to  ask  the  disputer,  "  What  have  you 
known  about  it  ? "  and  he  generally  tells  me  some 
lamentable  case  of  failure.  Then  I  ask,  "  What  are 
the  circumstances  of  the  case,  and  how  was  the 
teaching  carried  out  ? "  I  remember,  some  few 
years  ago,  hearing  of  the  head  master  of  a  large 
school,  who  had  expressed  great  dissatisfaction 
with  the  adoption  of  the  teaching  of  physical 
science — and  that  after  experiment.  But  the  experi- 
ment consisted  in  this — in  asking  one  of  the  junior 
masters  in  the  school  to  get  up  science,  in  order  to 
teach  it ;  and  the  young  gentleman  went  away  for  a 
year  and  got  up  science  and  taught  it.  Well,  I  have 
71 


IG8        SCIENCE  AND   AET   AND   EDUCATION  VII 

no  doubt  that  the  result  was  as  disappointing  as  the 
head-master  said  it  was,  and  I  have  no  doubt  that  it 
ought  to  have  been  as  disappointing,  and  far  more 
disappointing  too  ;  for,  if  this  kind  of  instruction 
is  to  be  of  any  good  at  all,  if  it  is  not  to  be  less 
than  no  good,  if  it  is  to  take  the  place  of  that 
which  is  already  of  some  good,  then  there  are 
several  points  which  must  be  attended  to. 

And  the  first  of  these  is  the  proper  selection  of 
topics,  the  second  is  practical  teaching,  the  third  is 
practical  teachers,  and  the  fourth  is  sufficiency  of 
time.  If  these  four  points  are  not  carefully  at- 
tended to  by  anybody  who  undertakes  the  teaching 
of  physical  science  in  schools,  my  advice  to  him  is, 
to  let  it  alone.  I  will  not  dwell  at  any  length 
upon  the  first  point,  because  there  is  a  general 
consensus  of  opinion  as  to  the  nature  of  the  topics 
which  should  be  chosen.  The  second  point — 
practical  teaching — is  one  of  great  importance, 
because  it  requires  more  capital  to  set  it  agoing, 
demands  more  time,  and,  last,  but  by  no  means 
least,  it  requires  much  more  personal  exertion  and 
trouble  on  the  part  of  those  professing  to  teach, 
than  is  the  case  with  other  kinds  of  instruction. 

When  I  accepted  the  invitation  to  be  here  this 
evening,  your  secretary  was  good  enough  to  send 
me  the  addresses  which  have  been  given  by  dis- 
tinguished persons  who  have  previously  occupied 
this  chair.  I  don't  know  whether  he  had  a 
malicious  desire  to  alarm  me ;  but,  however  that 


vn  SCIENCE  AND   ART  AND   EDUCATION        169 

may  be,  I  read  the  addresses,  and  derived  the 
greatest  pleasure  and  profit  from  some  of  them, 
and  from  none  more  than  from  the  one  given  by 
the  great  historian,  Mr.  Freeman,  which  delighted 
me  most  of  all ;  and,  if  I  had  not  been  ashamed  of 
plagiarising,  and  if  I  had  not  been  sure  of  being 
found  out,  I  should  have  been  glad  to  have  copied 
very  much  of  what  Mr.  Freeman  said,  simply 
patting  in  the  word  science  for  history.  There 
was  one  notable  passage, — "  The  difference  be- 
tween good  and  bad  teaching  mainly  consists  in 
this,  whether  the  words  used  are  really  clothed 
with  a  meaning  or  not."  And  Mr.  Freeman  gives 
a  remarkable  example  of  this.  He  says,  when  a 
little  girl  was  asked  where  Turkey  was,  she 
answered  that  it  was  in  the  yard  with  the  other 
fowls,  and  that  showed  she  had  a  definite  idea 
connected  with  the  word  Turkey,  and  was,  so  far, 
worthy  of  praise.  I  quite  agree  with  that  com- 
mendation ;  but  what  a  curious  thing  it  is  that 
one  should  now  find  it  necessary  to  urge  that  this 
is  the  be-all  and  end-all  of  scientific  instruction — 
the  sine  qud  non,  the  absolutely  necessary  condition, 
— and  yet  that  it  was  insisted  upon  more  than  two 
hundred  years  ago  by  one  of  the  greatest  men 
science  ever  possessed  in  this  country,  William 
Harvey.  Harvey  wrote,  or  at  least  published, 
only  two  small  books,  one  of  which  is  the  well- 
known  treatise  on  the  circulation  of  the  blood. 
The  other,  the  "  Exercitationes  de  Generatione,"  is 


170        SCIENCE   AND   ART  AND   EDUCATION  VH 

less  known,  but  not  less  remarkable.  And  not 
the  least  valuable  part  of  it  is  "the  preface,  in 
which  there  occurs  this  passage  :  "  Those  who, 
reading  the  words  of  authors,  do  not  form  sensible 
images  of  the  things  referred  to,  obtain  no  true 
ideas,  but  conceive  false  imaginations  and  inane 
phantasms/'  You  see,  William  Harvey's  words 
are  just  the  same  in  substance  as  those  of  Mr. 
Freeman,  only  they  happen  to  be  rather  more 
than  two  centuries  older.  So  that  what  I  am  now 
saying  has  its  application  elsewhere  than  in 
science  ;  but  assuredly  in  science  the  condition  of 
knowing,  of  your  own  knowledge,  things  which  you 
talk  about,  is  absolutely  imperative. 

I  remember,  in  my  youth,  there  were  detestable 
books  which  ought  to  have  been  burned  by  the 
hands  of  the  common  hangman,  for  they  contained 
questions  and  answers  to  be  learned  by  heart,  of 
this  sort,  "  What  is  a  horse  ?  The  horse  is  termed 
Equus  caballus  ;  belongs  to  the  class  Mammalia ; 
order,  Pachydermata  ;  family,  Solidungula."  Was 
any  human  being  wiser  for  learning  that  magic 
formula  ?  Was  he  not  more  foolish  3  inasmuch  as  he 
was  deluded  into  taking  words  for  knowledge  ?  It  is 
that  kind  of  teaching  that  one  wants  to  get  rid  of, 
and  banished  out  of  science.  Make  it  as  little  as 
you  like,  but,  unless  that  which  is  taught  is  based 
on  actual  observation  and  familiarity  with  facts,  it 
is  better  left  alone. 

There  are  a  great  many  people  who  imagine  that 


vii  SCIENCE   AND   ART  AND   EDUCATION        171 

elementary  teaching  might  be  properly  carried  out 
by  teachers  provided  with  only  elementary  know- 
ledge. Let  me  assure  you  that  that  is  the  pro- 
foundest  mistake  in  the  world.  There  is  nothing 
so  difficult  to  do  as  to  write  a  good  elementary 
book,  and  there  is  nobody  so  hard  to  teach  properly 
and  well  as  people  who  know  nothing  about  a 
subject,  and  I  will  tell  you  why.  If  I  address  an 
audience  of  persons  who  are  occupied  in  the  same 
line  of  work  as  myself,  I  can  assume  that  they 
know  a  vast  deal,  and  that  they  can  find  out  the 
blunders  I  make.  If  they  don't,  it  is  their  fault 
and  not  mine ;  but  when  I  appear  before  a  body  of 
people  who  know  nothing  about  the  matter,  who 
take  for  gospel  whatever  I  say,  surely  it  becomes 
needful  that  I  consider  what  I  say,  make  sure  that 
it  will  bear  examination,  and  that  I  do  not  impose 
upon  the  credulity  of  those  who  have  faith  in  me. 
In  the  second  place,  it  involves  that  difficult  pro- 
cess of  knowing  what  you  know  so  well  that  you 
can  talk  about  it  as  you  can  talk  about  your  ordinary 
business.  A  man  can  always  talk  about  his  own 
business.  He  can  always  make  it  plain ;  but,  if 
his  knowledge  is  hearsay,  he  is  afraid  to  go  beyond 
what  he  has  recollected,  and  put  it  before  those 
that  are  ignorant  in  such  a  shape  that  they  shall 
comprehend  it.  That  is  why,  to  be  a  good  elemen- 
tary teacher,  to  teach  the  elements  of  any  subject, 
requires  most  careful  consideration,  if  you  are  a 
master  of  the  subject ;  and,  if  you  are  not  a  master 


172        SCIENCE   AND   ART  AND   EDUCATION  vii 

of  it,  it  is  needful  you  should  familiarise  yourself 
with  so  much  as  you  are  called  upon  to  teach — 
soak  yourself  in  it,  so  to  speak — until  you  know  it 
as  part  of  your  daily  life  and  daily  knowledge,  and 
then  you  will  be  able  to  teach  anybody.  That  is 
what  1  mean  by  practical  teachers,  and,  although 
the  deficiency  of  such  teachers  is  being  remedied 
to  a  large  extent,  I  think  it  is  one  which  has  long 
existed,  and  which  has  existed  from  no  fault  of 
those  who  undertook  to  teach,  but  because,  until 
the  last  score  of  years,  it  absolutely  was  not  possi- 
ble for  any  one  in  a  great  many  branches  of  science, 
whatever  his  desire  might  be,  to  get  instruction 
which  would  enable  him  to  be  a  good  teacher  of  ele- 
mentary things.  All  that  is  being  rapidly  altered, 
and  I  hope  it  will  soon  become  a  thing  of  the  past. 
The  last  point  I  have  referred  to  is  the  question 
of  the  sufficiency  of  time.  And  here  comes  the 
rub.  The  teaching  of  science  needs  time,  as  any 
other  subject ;  but  it  needs  more  time  proportion- 
ally than  other  subjects,  for  the  amount  of  work 
obviously  done,  if  the  teaching  is  to  be,  as  I  have 
said,  practical.  Work  done  in  a  laboratory  involves 
a  good  deal  of  expenditure  of  time  without  always 
an  obvious  result,  because  we  do  not  see  anything 
of  that  quiet  process  of  soaking  the  facts  into  the 
mind,  which  takes  place  through  the  organs  of  the 
senses.  On  this  ground  there  must  be  ample  time 
given  to  science  teaching.  What  that  amount 
of  time  should  be  is  a  point  which  I  need  not 


Vil          SCIENCE    AND   ART   AND   EDUCATION        173 

discuss  now  ;  in  fact,  it  is  a  point  which  cannot  be 
settled  until  one  has  .made  up  one's  mind  about 
various  other  questions. 

All,  then,  that  I  have  to  ask  for,  on  behalf  of 
the  scientific  people,  if  I  may  venture  to  speak 
for  more  than  myself,  is  that  you  should  put 
scientific  teaching  into  what  statesmen  call  the 
condition  of  "  the  most  favoured  nation  "  ;  that  is 
to  say,  that  it  shall  have  as  large  a  share  of  the 
time  given  to  education  as  any  other  principal 
subject.  You  may  say  that  that  is  a  very  vague 
statement,  because  the  value  of  the  allotment  of 
time,  under  those  circumstances,  depends  upon 
the  number  of  principal  subjects.  It  is  x  the 
time,  and  an  unknown  quantity  of  principal  sub- 
jects dividing  that,  and  science  taking  shares  with 
the  rest.  That  shows  that  we  cannot  deal  with 
this  question  fully  until  we  have  made  up  our 
minds  as  to  what  the  principal  subjects  of  educa- 
tion ought  to  be. 

I  know  quite  well  that  launching  myself  into 
this  discussion  is  a  very  dangerous  operation  ;  that 
it  is  a  very  large  subject,  and  one  which  is  difficult 
to  deal  with,  however  much  I  may  trespass  upon 
your  patience  in  the  time  allotted  to  me.  But  the 
discussion  is  so  'fundamental,  it  is  so  completely 
impossible  to  make  up  one's  mind  on  theso 
matters  until  one  has  settled  the  question,  that  I 
will  even  venture  to  make  the  experiment.  A 
great  lawyer-statesman  and  philosopher  of  a  former 


174        SCIENCE   AND   ART  AND   EDUCATION  VII 

age — I  mean  Francis  Bacon — said  that  truth  came 
out  of  error  much  more  rapidly  than  it  came  out 
of  confusion.  There  is  a  wonderful  truth  in  that 
saying.  Next  to  being  right  in  this  world,  the  best 
of  all  things  is  to  be  clearly  and  definitely  wrong, 
because  you  will  come  out  somewhere.  If  you  go 
buzzing  about  between  right  and  wrong,  vibrating 
and  fluctuating,  you  come  out  nowhere  ;  but  if 
you  are  absolutely  and  thoroughly  and  persistently 
wrong,  you  must,  some  of  these  days,  have  the 
extreme  good  fortune  of  knocking  your  head  against 
a  fact,  and  that  sets  you  all  straight  again.  So  I 
will  not  trouble  myself  as  to  whether  I  may  be 
right  or  wrong  in  what  I  am  about  to  say,  but  at 
any  rate  I  hope  to  be  clear  and  definite ;  and  then 
you  will  be  able  to  judge  for  yourselves  whether,  in 
following  out  the  train  of  thought  I  have  to  intro- 
duce, you  knock  your  heads  against  facts  or  not. 

I  take  it  that  the  whole  object  of  education  is, 
in  the  first  place,  to  train  the  faculties  of  the  young 
in  such  a  manner  as  to  give  their  possessors  the 
best  chance  of  being  happy  and  useful  in  their 
generation ;  and,  in  the  second  place,  to  furnish 
them  with  the  most  important  portions  of  that 
immense  capitalised  experience  of  the  human  race 
which  we  call  knowledge  of  various  kinds.  I  am 
using  the  term  knowledge  in  its  widest  possible 
sense ;  and  the  question  is,  what  subjects  to  select 
by  training  and  discipline,  in  which  the  object  I 
have  just  defined  may  be  best  attained. 


VII  SCIENCE   AND   ART   AND   EDUCATION        175 

I  must  call  your  attention  further  to  this  fact, 
that  all  the  subjects  of  our  thoughts — all  feelings 
and  propositions  (leaving  aside  our  sensations  as 
the  mere  materials  and  occasions  of  thinking  and 
feeling),  all  our  mental  furniture — may  be  classi- 
fied under  one  of  two  heads — as  either  within  the 
province  of  the  intellect,  something  that  can  be 
put  into  propositions  and  affirmed  or  denied ;  or 
as  within  the  province  of  feeling,  or  that  which, 
before  the  name  was  defiled,  was  called  the 
aesthetic  side  of  our  nature,  and  which  can 
neither  be  proved  nor  disproved,  but  only  felt 
and  known. 

According  to  the  classification  which  I  have 
put  before  you,  then,  the  subjects  of  all  know- 
ledge are  divisible  into  the  two  groups,  matters  of 
science  and  matters  of  art  ;  for  all  things  with 
which  the  reasoning  faculty  alone  is  occupied, 
come  under  the  province  of  science  ;  and  in  the 
broadest  sense,  and  not  in  the  narrow  and  tech- 
nical sense  in  which  we  are  now  accustomed  to 
use  the  word  art,  all  things  feelable,  all  things 
which  stir  our  emotions,  come  under  the  term  of 
art,  in  the  sense  of  the  subject-matter  of  the 
aesthetic  faculty.  So  that  we  are  shut  up  to  this 
— that  the  business  of  education  is,  in  the  first 
place,  to  provide  the  young  with  the  means  and 
the  habit  of  observation  ;  and,  secondly,  to  supply 
the  subject-matter  of  knowledge  either  in  the 
shape  of  science  or  of  art,  or  of  both  combined. 


176        SCIENCE   AND   ART   AND   EDUCATION  vil 

Now,  it  is  a  very  remarkable  fact — bub  it  is 
true  of  most  things  in  this  world — that  there  is 
hardly  anything  one-sided,  or  of  one  nature ;  and 
it  is  not  immediately  obvious  what  of  the  things 
that  interest  us  may  be  regarded  as  pure  science, 
and  what  may  be  regarded  as  pure  art.  It  may 
be  that  there  are  some  peculiarly  constituted 
persons  who,  before  they  have  advanced  far  into 
the  depths  of  geometry,  find  artistic  beauty  about 
it ;  but,  taking  the  generality  of  mankind,  I  think 
it  may  be  said  that,  when  they  begin  to  learn 
mathematics,  their  whole  souls  are  absorbed  in 
tracing  the  connection  between  the  premisses  and 
the  conclusion,  and  that  to  them  geometry  is  pure 
science.  So  I  think  it  may  be  said  that  mechanics 
and  osteology  are  pure  science.  On  the  other 
hand,  melody  in  music  is  pure  art.  You  cannot 
reason  about  it ;  there  is  no  proposition  involved 
in  it.  So,  again,  in  the  pictorial  art,  an  arabesque, 
or  a  "  harmony  in  grey,"  touches  none  but  the 
aesthetic  faculty.  But  a  great  mathematician, 
and  even  many  persons  who  are  not  great  mathe- 
maticians, will  tell  you  that  they  derive  immense 
pleasure  from  geometrical  reasonings.  Everybody 
knows  mathematicians  speak  of  solutions  and 
problems  as  "  elegant,"  and  they  tell  you  that  a 
certain  mass  of  mystic  symbols  is  "  beautiful, 
quite  lovely."  Well,  you  do  not  see  it.  They  do 
see  it,  because  the  intellectual  process,  the  process 
of  comprehending  the  reasons  symbolised  by  these 


vii  SCIENCE  AND   ART   AND   EDUCATION        177 

figures  and  these  signs,  confers  upon  them  a  sort 
of  pleasure,  such  as  an  artist  has  in  visual 
symmetry.  Take  a  science  of  which  I  may  speak 
with  more  confidence,  and  which  is  the  most 
attractive  of  those  I  am  concerned  with.  It  is 
what  we  call  morphology,  which  consists  in  tracing 
out  the  unity  in  variety  of  the  infinitely  diversi- 
fied structures  of  animals  and  plants.  I  cannot 
give  you  any  example  of  a  thorough  aesthetic 
pleasure  more  intensely  real  than  a  pleasure  of 
this  kind — the  pleasure  which  arises  in  one's 
mind  when  a  whole  mass  of  different  structures 
run  into  one  harmony  as  the  expression  of  a 
central  law.  That  is  where  the  province  of  art 
overlays  and  embraces  the  province  of  intellect. 
And,  if  I  may.  venture  to  express  an  opinion  on 
such  a  subject,  the  great  majority  of  forms  of  art 
are  not  in  the  sense  what  I  just  now  defined  them 
to  be — pure  art ;  but  they  derive  much  of  their 
quality  from  simultaneous  and  even  unconscious 
excitement  of  the  intellect. 

When  I  was  a  boy,  I  was  very  fond  of  music, 
and  I  am  so  now ;  and  it  so  happened  that  I  had 
the  opportunity  of  hearing  much  good  music. 
Among  other  things,  I  had  abundant  opportunities 
of  hearing  that  great  old  master,  Sebastian  Bach, 
I  remember  perfectly  well — though  I  knew 
nothing  about  music  then,  and,  I  may  add,  know 
nothing  whatever  about  it  now — the  intense 
satisfaction  and  delight  which  I  had  in  listening, 


178        SCIENCE   AND   ART  AND   EDUCATION          vil 

by  the  hour  together,  to  Bach's  fugues.  It  is  a 
pleasure  which  remains  with  me,  I  am  glad  to 
think  ;  but,  of  late  years,  I  have  tried  to  find  out 
the  why  and  wherefore,  and  it  has  often  occurred 
to  me  that  the  pleasure  derived  from  musical 
compositions  of  this  kind  is  essentially  of  the 
same  nature  as  that  which  is  derived  from  pursuits 
which  are  commonly  regarded  as  purely  intel- 
lectual. I  mean,  that  the  source  of  pleasure  is 
exactly  the  same  as  in  most  of  my  problems  in 
morphology — that  you  have  the  theme  in  one  of 
the  old  master's  works  followed  out  in  all  its 
endless  variations,  always  appearing  and  always 
reminding  you  of  unity  in  variety.  So  in 
painting  ;  what  is  called  "  truth  to  nature  "  is  the 
intellectual  element  coming  in,  and  truth  to 
nature  depends  entirely  upon  the  intellectual 
culture  of  the  person  to  whom  art  is  addressed. 
If  you  are  in  Australia,  you  may  get  credit  for 
being  a  good  artist — I  mean  among  the  natives — 
if  you  can  draw  a  kangaroo  after  a  fashion.  But, 
among  men  of  higher  civilisation,  the  intellectual 
knowledge  we  possess  brings  its  criticism  into  our 
appreciation  of  works  of  art,  and  we  are  obliged 
to  satisfy  it,  as  well  as  the  mere  sense  of  beauty 
in  colour  and  in  outline.  And  so,  the  higher  the 
culture  and  information  of  those  whom  art 
addresses,  the  more  exact  and  precise  must  be 
what  we  call  its  "  truth  to  nature/' 

If  we  turn  to  literature,  the  same  thing  is  true, 


VII  SCIENCE   AND   ART  AND   EDUCATION        179 

and  you  find  works  of  literature  which  may  be 
said  to  be  pure  art.  A  little  song  of  Shakespeare 
or  of  Goethe  is  pure  art ;  it  is  exquisitely  beautiful, 
although  its  intellectual  content  may  be  nothing. 
A  series  of  pictures  is  made  to  pass  before  your 
mind  by  the  meaning  of  words,  and  the  effect  is  a 
melody  of  ideas.  Nevertheless,  the  great  mass  of 
the  literature  we  esteem  is  valued,  not  merely 
because  of  having  artistic  form,  but  because  of  its 
intellectual  content ;  and  the  value  is  the  higher 
the  more  precise,  distinct,  and  true  is  that  intel- 
lectual content.  And,  if  you  will  let  me  for  a 
moment  speak  of  the  very  highest  forms  of 
literature,  do  we  not  regard  them  as  highest 
simply  because  the  more  we  know  the  truer  they 
seem,  and  the  more  competent  we  are  to  appre- 
ciate beauty  the  more  beautiful  they  are  ?  No 
man  ever  understands  Shakespeare  until  he  is  old, 
though  the  youngest  may  admire  him,  the  reason 
being  that  he  satisfies  the  artistic  instinct  of  the 
youngest  and  harmonises  with  the  ripest  and 
richest  experience  of  the  oldest. 

I  have  said  this  much  to  draw  your  attention 
to  what,  to  my  mind,  lies  at  the  root  of  all  this 
matter,  and  at  the  understanding  of  one  another 
by  the  men  of  science  on  the  one  hand,  and  -  the 
men  of  literature,  and  history,  and  art,  on  the 
other.  It  is  not  a  question  whether  one  order  of 
study  or  another  should  predominate.  It  is  a 
question  of  what  topics  of  education  you  shall 


180        SCIENCE   AND   ART   AND   EDUCATION          vil 

select  which  will  combine  all  the  needful  elements 
in  such  due  proportion  as  to  give  the  greatest 
amount  of  food,  support,  and  encouragement 
to  those  faculties  which  enable  us  to  appreciate 
truth,  and  to  profit  by  those  sources  of  innocent 
happiness  which  are  open  to  us,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  to  avoid  that  which  is  bad,  and  coarse,  and 
ugly,  and  keep  clear  of  the  multitude  of  pitfalls 
and  dangers  which  beset  those  who  break  through 
the  natural  or  moral  laws. 

I  address  myself,  in  this  spirit,  to  the  considera- 
tion of  the  question  of  the  value  of  purely  literary 
education.  Is  it  good  and  sufficient,  or  is  it 
insufficient  and  bad  ?  Well,  here  I  venture  to 
say  that  there  are  literary  educations  and  literary 
educations.  If  I  am  to  understand  by  that  term 
the  education  that  was  current  in  the  great 
majority  of  middle-class  schools,  and  upper  schools 
too,  in  this  country  when  I  was  a  boy,  and  which 
consisted  absolutely  and  almost  entirely  in  keeping 
boys  for  eight  or  ten  years  at  learning  the  rules  of 
Latin  and  Greek  grammar,  construing  certain 
Latin  and  Greek  authors,  and  possibly  making 
verses  which,  had  they  been  English  verses, 
would  have  been  condemned  as  abominable 
doggerel, — if  that  is  what  you  mean  by  liberal 
education,  then  I  say  it  is  scandalously  insufficient 
and  almost  worthless.  My  reason  for  saying  so 
is  not  from  the  point  of  view  of  science  at  all,  but 
from  the  point  of  view  of  literature.  I  say  the 


VII  SCIENCE    AND    AUT   AND    EDUCATION        181 

thing  professes  to  be  literary  education  that  is 
not  a  literary  education  at  all.  It  was  not 
literature  at  all  that  was  taught,  but  science  in  a 
very  bad  form.  It  is  quite  obvious  that  grammar 
is  science  and  not  literature.  The  analysis  of  a 
text  by  the  help  of  the  rules  of  grammar  is  just  as 
much  a  scientific  operation  as  the  analysis  of  a 
chemical  compound  by  the  help  of  the  rules  of 
chemical  analysis.  There  is  nothing  that  appeals 
to  the  aesthetic  faculty  in  that  operation ;  and  I 
ask  multitudes  of  men  of  my  own  age,  who  went 
through  this  process,  whether  they  ever  had  a 
conception  of  art  or  literature  until  they  obtained 
it  for  themselves  after  leaving  school  ?  Then  you 
may  say,  "  If  that  is  so,  if  the  education  was 
scientific,  why  cannot  you  be  satisfied  with  it  ?  "  I 
say,  because  although  it  is  a  scientific  training,  it 
is  of  the  most  inadequate  and  inappropriate  kind. 
If  there  is  any  good  at  all  in  scientific  education 
it  is  that  men  should  be  trained,  as  I  said  before, 
to  know  things  for  themselves  at  first  hand,  and 
that  they  should  understand  every  step  of  the 
reason  of  that  which  they  do. 

I  desire  to  speak  with  the  utmost  respect  of 
that  science — philology — of  which  grammar  is  a 
part  and  parcel ;  yet  everybody  knows  that 
grammar,  as  it  is  usually  learned  at  school,  affords 
no  scientific  training.  It  is  taught  just  as  you 
would  teach  the  rules  of  chess  or  draughts.  On 
the  other  hand,  if  I  am  to  understand  by  a  literary 


182        SCIENCE  AND  ART  AND  EDUCATION          vil 

education  the  study  of  the  literatures  of  either 
ancient  or  modern  nations — but  especially  those  of 
antiquity,  and  especially  that  of  ancient  Greece ; 
if  this  literature  is  studied,  not  merely  from  the 
point  of  view  of  philological  science,  and  its 
practical  application  to  the  interpretation  of  texts, 
but  as  an  exemplification  of  and  commentary 
upon  the  principles  of  art ;  if  you  look  upon  the 
literature  of  a  people  as  a  chapter  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  human  mind,  if  you  work  out  this  iu 
a  broad  spirit,  and  with  such  collateral  references 
to  morals  and  politics,  and  physical  geography, 
and  the  like  as  are  needful  to  make  you  compre- 
hend what  the  meaning  of  ancient  literature  and 
civilisation  is, — then,  assuredly,  it  affords  a 
splendid  and  noble  education.  But  I  still  think 
it  is  susceptible  of  improvement,  and  that  no  man 
will  ever  comprehend  the  real  secret  of  the  differ- 
ence between  the  ancient  world  and  our  present 
time,  unless  he  has  learned  to  see  the  difference 
which  the  late  development  of  physical  science 
has  made  between  the  thought  of  this  day  and  the 
thought  of  that,  and  he  will  never  see  that 
difference,  unless  he  has  some  practical  insight 
into  some  branches  of  physical  science  ;  and  you 
must  remember  that  a  literary  education  such  as 
that  which  I  have  just  referred  to,  is  out  of  the 
reach  of  those  whose  school  life  is  cut  short  at 
sixteen  or  seventeen. 

But,  you  will  say,  all  this  is  fault-finding ;  let 


vn          SCIENCE  AND  ART  AND  EDUCATION       183 

us  hear  what  you  have  in  the  way  of  positive 
suggestion.  Then  I  am  bound  to  tell  you  that,  if 
I  could  make  a  clean  sweep  of  everything — I  am 
very  glad  I  cannot  because  I  might,  and 
probably  should,  make  mistakes, — but  if  I  could 
make  a  clean  sweep  of  everything  and  start 
afresh,  I  should,  in  the  first  place,  secure  that 
training  of  the  young  in  reading  and  writing,  and 
in  the  habit  of  attention  and  observation,  both  to 
that  which  is  told  them,  and  that  which  they  see, 
which  everybody  agrees  to.  But  in  addition  to 
that,  I  should  make  it  absolutely  necessary  for 
everybody,  for  a  longer  or  shorter  period,  to  learn 
to  draw.  Now,  you  may  say,  there  are  some 
people  who  cannot  draw,  however  much  they  may 
be  taught.  I  deny  that  in  toto,  because  I  never  yet 
met  with  anybody  who  could  not  learn  to  write. 
Writing  is  a  form  of  drawing ;  therefore  if  you 
give  the  same  attention  and  trouble  to  drawing 
as  you  do  to  writing,  depend  upon  it,  there  is 
nobody  who  cannot  be  made  to  draw,  more  or  less 
well.  Do  not  misapprehend  me.  I  do  not  say 
for  one  moment  you  would  make  an  artistic 
draughtsman.  Artists  are  not  made  ;  they  grow. 
You  may  improve  the  natural  faculty  in  that 
direction,  but  you  cannot  make  it ;  but  you  can 
teach  simple  drawing,  and  you  will  find  it  an 
implement  of  learning  of  extreme  value.  I  do 
not  think  its  value  can  be  exaggerated,  because  it 
gives  you  the  means  of  training  the  young  in 


184         SCIENCE   AND   AKT  AND   EDUCATION          vn 

attention  and  accuracy,  which  are  the  two  things 
in  which  all  mankind  are  more  deficient  than  in 
any  other  mental  quality  whatever.  The  whole 
of  my  life  has  been  spent  in  trying  to  give  my 
proper  attention  to  things  and  to  be  accurate, 
and  I  have  not  succeeded  as  well  as  I  could  wish ; 
and  other  people,  I  am  afraid,  are  not  much  more 
fortunate.  You  cannot  begin  this  habit  too  early, 
and  I  consider  there  is  nothing  of  so  great  a 
value  as  the  habit  of  drawing,  to  secure  those 
two  desirable  ends. 

Then  we  come  to  the  subject-matter,  whether 
scientific  or  aesthetic,  of  education,  and  I  should 
naturally  have  no  question  at  all  about  teaching 
the  elements  of  physical  science  of  the  kind  I 
have  sketched,  in  a  practical  manner  ;  but  among 
scientific  topics,  using  the  word  scientific  in  the 
broadest  sense,  I  would  also  include  the  elements 
of  the  theory  of  morals  and  of  that  of  political 
and  social  life,  which,  strangely  enough,  it  never 
seems  to  occur  to  anybody  to  teach  a  child.  I 
would  have  the  history  of  our  own  country,  and 
of  all  the  influences  which  have  been  brought  to 
bear  upon  it,  with  incidental  geography,  not  as  a 
mere  chronicle  of  reigns  and  battles,  but  as  a 
chapter  in  the  development  of  the  race,  and  tho 
history  of  civilisation. 

Then  with  respect  to  esthetic  knowledge  and 
discipline,  we  have  happily  in  the  English  language 
one  of  the  most  magnificent  storehouses  of  artistic 


VII  SCIENCE  AND   ART  AND   EDUCATION        185 

beauty  and  of  models  of  literaiy  excellence  which 
exists  in  the  world  at  the  present  time.  I  have 
said  before,  and  I  repeat  it'  here,  that  if  a  man 
cannot  get  literary  culture  of  the  highest  kind  out 
of  his  Bible,  and  Chaucer,  and  Shakespeare,  and 
Milton,  and  Hobbes,  and  Bishop  Berkeley,  to 
mention  only  a  few  of  our  illustrious  writers — I 
say,  if  he  cannot  get  it  out  of  those  writers,  Le 
cannot  get  it  out  of  anything  ;  and  I  would 
assuredly  devote  a  very  large  portion  of  the  time 
of  every  English  child  to  the  careful  study  of  the 
models  of  English  writing  of  such  .varied  and 
wonderful  kind  as  we  possess,  and,  what  is  still 
more  important  and  still  more  neglected,  the  habit 
of  using  that  language  with  precision,  with  force, 
and  with  art.  I  fancy  we  are  almost  the  only 
nation  in  the  world  who  seem  to  think  that  com- 
position comes  by  nature.  The  French  attend  to 
their  own  language,  the  Germans  study  theirs ;  but 
Englishmen  do  not  seem  to  think  it  is  worth  their 
while.  Nor  would  I  fail  to  include,  in  the  course 
of  study  I  am  sketching,  translations  of  all  the 
best  works  of  antiquity,  or  of  the  modern  world. 
It  is  a  very  desirable  thing  to  read  Homer  in 
Greek ;  but  if  you  don't  happen  to  know  Greek, 
the  next  best  thing  we  can  do  is  to  read  as  good 
a  translation  of  it  as  we  have  recently  been 
furnished  with  in  prose.  You  won't  get  all  you 
would  get  from  the  original,  but  you  may  get  a 
great  deal ;  and  to  refuse  to  know  this  great  deal 


186         SCIENCE   AND   ART  AND   EDUCATION          vn 

because  you  cannot  get  all,  seems  to  be  as  sensible 
as  for  a  hungry  man  to  refuse  bread  because  he 
cannot  get  partridge.'  Finally,  I  would  add  in- 
struction in  either  music  or  painting,  or,  if  the 
child  should  be  so  unhappy,  as  sometimes  happens, 
as  to  have  no  faculty  for  either  of  those,  and  no 
possibility  of  doing  anything  in  any  artistic  sense 
with  them,  then  I  would  see  what  could  be  done 
with  literature  alone ;  but  I  would  provide,  in  the 
fullest  sense,  for  the  development  of  the  aesthetic 
side  of  the  mind.  In  my  judgment,  those  are  all 
the  essentials  of  education  for  an  English  child. 
With  that  outfit,  such  as  it  might  be  made  in  the 
time  given  to  education  which  is  within  the 
reach  of  nine-tenths  of  the  population — with  that 
outfit,  an  Englishman,  within  the  limits  of 
English  life,  is  fitted  to  go  anywhere,  to 
occupy  the  highest  positions,  to  fill  the  highest 
offices  of  the  State,  and  to  become  dis- 
tinguished in  practical  pursuits,  in  science,  or  in 
art.  For,  if  he  have  the  opportunity  to  learn  all 
those  things,  and  have  his  mind  disciplined  in 
the  various  directions  the  teaching  of  those  topics 
would  have  necessitated,  then,  assuredly,  he  will 
be  able  to  pick  up,  on  his  road  through  life,  all  the 
rest  of  the  intellectual  baggage  he  wants. 

If  the  educational  time  at  our  disposition  were 
sufficient,  there  are  one  or  two  things  I  would  add 
to  those  I  have  just  now  called  the  essentials ;  and 
perhaps  you  will  be  surprised  to  hear,  though  I 


VII  SCIENCE   AND   ART  AND   EDUCATION        187 

hope  you  will  not,  that  I  should  add,  not  more 
science,  but  one,  or,  if  possible,  two  languages. 
The  knowledge  of  some  other  language  than  one's 
own  is,  in  fact,  of  singular  intellectual  value. 
Many  of  the  faults  and  mistakes  of  the  ancient 
philosophers  are  traceable  to  the  fact  that  they 
knew  no  language  but  their  own,  and  were  often 
led  into  confusing  the  symbol  with  the  thought 
which  it  embodied.  I  think  it  is  Locke  who  says 
that  one-half  of  the  mistakes  of  philosophers  have 
arisen  from  questions  about  words ;  and  one  of  the 
safest  ways  of  delivering  yourself  from  the  bondage 
of  words  is,  to  know  how  ideas  look  in  words  to 
which  you  are  not  accustomed.  That  is  one  reason 
for  the  study  of  language  ;  another  reason  is,  that 
it  opens  new  fields  in  art  and  in  science.  Another 
is  the  practical  value  of  such  knowledge  ;  and  yet 
another  is  this,  that  if  your  languages  are  properly 
chosen,  from  the  time  of  learning  the  additional 
languages  you  will  know  your  own  language  better 
ihan  ever  you  did.  So,  I  say,  if  the  time  given 
to  education  permits,  add  Latin  and  German. 
Latin,  because  it  is  the  key  to  nearly  one-half  of 
English  and  to  all  the  Romance  languages ;  and 
German,  because  it  is  the  key  to  almost  all  the 
remainder  of  English,  and  helps  you  to  understand 
a  race  from  whom  most  of  us  have  sprung,  and 
who  have  a  character  and  a  literature  of  a  fateful 
force  in  the  history  of  the  world,  such  as  probably 
been  allotted  to  those  of  no  other  people, 


188        SCIENCE  AND  ART  AND   EDUCATION          vi] 

except  the  Jews,  the  Greeks,  and  ourselves. 
Beyond  these,  the  essential  and  the  eminently 
desirable  elements  of  all  education,  let  each  man 
take  up  his  special  line — the  historian  devote 
himself  to  his  history,  the  man  of  science  to  his 
science,  the  man  of  letters  to  his  culture  of  that 
kind,  and  the  artist  to  his  special  pursuit. 

Bacon  has  prefaced  some  of  his  works  with  no 
more  than  this  :  Franciscus  Bacon  sic  cogitavit ; 
let  "  sic  cogitavi "  be  the  epilogue  to  what  I  have 
ventured  to  address  to  you  to-night. 


Tin 

UNIVERSITIES  :  ACTUAL  AND  IDEAL 

[1874] 

ELECTED  by  the  suffrages  of  your  four  Nations 
Rector  of  the  ancient  University  of  which  you  are 
scholars,  I  take  the  earliest  opportunity  which  has 
presented  itself  since  my  restoration  to  health,  of 
delivering  the  Address  which,  by  long  custom,  is 
expected  of  the  holder  of  my  office. 

My  first  duty  in  opening  that  Address,  is  to 
offer  you  my  most  hearty  thanks  for  the  signal 
honour  you  have  conferred  upon  me — an  honour 
of  which,  as  a  man  unconnected  with  you  by 
personal  or  by  national  ties,  devoid  of  political 
distinction,  and  a  plebeian  who  stands  by  his  order, 
I  could  not  have  dreamed.  And  it  was  the  more 
surprising  to  me,  as  the  five-and-twenty  years 
which  have  passed  over  my  head  since  I  reached 
intellectual  manhood,  have  been  largely  spent  in 
no  half-hearted  advocacy  of  doctrines  which  have 


190        UNIVERSITIES  :  ACTUAL   AND   IDEAL         nil 

not  yet  found  favour  in  the  eyes  of  Academic 
respectability;  so  that,  when  the  proposal  to 
nominate  me  for  your  Rector  came,  I  was  almost 
as  much  astonished  as  was  Hal  o'  the  Wynd, "  who 
fought  for  his  own  hand,"  by  the  Black  Douglas's 
proffer  of  knighthood.  And  I  fear  that  my 
acceptance  must  be  taken  as  evidence  that,  less 
wise  than  the  Armourer  of  Perth,  I  have  not  yet 
done  with  soldiering. 

In  fact,  if,  for  a  moment,  I  imagined  that  your 
intention  was  simply,  in  the  kindness  of  your 
hearts,  to  do  me  honour ;  and  that  the  Rector  of 
your  University,  like  that  of  some  other 
Universities  was  one  of  those  happy  beings  who 
sit  in  glory  for  three  years,  with  nothing  to  do  for 
it  save  the  making  of  a  speech,  a  conversation 
with  my  distinguished  predecessor  soon  dispelled 
the  dream.  I  found  that,  by  the  constitution  of 
the  University  of  Aberdeen,  the  incumbent  of  the 
Rectorate  is,  if  not  a  power,  at  any  rate  a  potential 
energy ;  and  that,  whatever  may  be  his  chances  of 
success  or  failure,  it  is  his  duty  to  convert  that 
potential  energy  into  a  living  force,  directed 
towards  such  ends  as  may  seem  to  him  conducive 
to  the  welfare  of  the  corporation  of  which  he  is 
the  theoretical  head. 

I  need  not  tell  you  that  your  late  Lord  Rector 
took  this  view  of  his  position,  and  acted  upon  it 
with  the  comprehensive,  far-seeing  insight  into 
the  actual  condition  and  tendencies,  not  merely 


VHI         UNIVERSITIES  :   ACTUAL   AND   IDEAL         191 

of  his  own,  but  of  other  countries,  which  is  his 
honourable  characteristic  among  statesmen.  I 
have  already  done  my  best,  and,  as  long  as  I  hold 
my  office,  I  shall  continue  my  endeavours,  to  follow 
in  the  path  which  he  trod ;  to  do  what  in  me  lies, 
to  bring  this  University  nearer  to  the  ideal — alas, 
that  I  should  be  obliged  to  say  ideal — of  all 
Universities ;  which,  as  I  conceive,  should  be  places 
in  which  thought  is  free  from  all  fetters  ;  and  in 
which  all  sources  of  knowledge,  and  all  aids  to 
learning,  should  be  accessible  to  all  comers,  with- 
out distinction  of  creed  or  country,  riches  or 
poverty. 

Do  not  suppose,  however,  that  I  am  sanguine 
enough  to  expect  much  to  come  of  any  poor  efforts 
of  mine.  If  your  annals  take  any  notice  of  my 
incumbency,  I  shall  probably  go  down  to  posterity 
as  the  Kector  who  was  always  beaten.  But  if  they 
add  as  I  think  they  will,  that  my  defeats  became 
victories  in  the  hands  of  my  successors,  I  shall  be 
well  content. 

The  scenes  are  shifting  in  the  great  theatre  of  the 
world.  The  act  which  commenced  with  the  Protest- 
ant Reformation  is  nearly  played  out,  and  a  wider 
and  deeper  change  than  that  effected  three  cen- 
turies ago—  a  reformation,  or  rather  a  revolution  of 
thought,  the  extremes  of  which  are  represented  by 
the  intellectual  heirs  of  John  of  Leyden  and  of 
Ignatius  Loyola,  rather  than  by  those  of  Luther 


192         UNIVERSITIES:   ACTUAL   AND   IDEAL         vill 

and  of  Leo — is  waiting  to  come  on,  nay,  visible 
behind  the  scenes  to  those  who  have  good  eyes 
Men  are  beginning,  once  more,  to  awake  to  the 
fact  that  matters  of  belief  and  of  speculation  are  of 
absolutely  infinite  practical  importance ;  and  are 
drawing  off  from  that  sunny  country  "  where  it  is 
always  afternoon" — the  sleepy  hollow  of  broad 
indifferentism — to  range  themselves  under  their 
natural  banners.  Change  is  in  the  air.  It  is 
whirling  feather-heads  into  all  sorts  of  eccentric 
orbits,  and  filling  the  steadiest  with  a  sense  of  in- 
security. It  insists  on  reopening  all  questions  and 
asking  all  institutions,  however  venerable,  by  what 
right  they  exist,  and  whether  they  are,  or  are  not, 
in  harmony  with  the  real  or  supposed  wants  of 
mankind.  And  it  is  remarkable  that  these  search- 
ing inquiries  are  not  so  much  forced  on  institu- 
tions from  without,  as  developed  from  within. 
Consummate  scholars  question  the  value  of  learn- 
ing ;  priests  contemn  dogma ;  and  women  turn 
their  backs  upon  man's  ideal  of  perfect  woman- 
hood, and  seek  satisfaction  in  apocalyptic  visions 
of  some,  as  yet,  unrealised  epicene  reality. 

If  there  be  a  type  of  stability  in  this  world,  one 
would  be  inclined  to  look  for  it  in  the  old  Univer- 
sities of  England.  But  it  has  been  my  business 
of  late  to  hear  a  good  deal  about  what  is  going  on 
in  these  famous  corporations ;  and  I  have  been 
filled  with  astonishment  by  the  evidences  of  inter- 
nal fermentation  which  they  exhibit.  If  Gibbon 


viii          UNIVERSITIES  :   ACTUAL   AND   IDEAL        103 

could  revisit  the  ancient  seat  of  learning  of  which 
he  has  written  so  cavalierly,  assuredly  he  would 
no  longer  speak  of  "  the  monks  of  Oxford  sunk  in 
prejudice  and  port."  There,  as  elsewhere,  port 
has  gone  out  of  fashion,  and  so  has  prejudice- — at 
least  that  particular  fine,  old,  crusted  sort  of  pre- 
judice to  which  the  great  historian  alludes. 

Indeed,  things  are  moving  so  fast  in  Oxford  and 
Cambridge,  that,  for  my  part,  I  rejoiced  when  the 
Royal  Commission,  of  which  I  am  a  member,  had 
finished  and  presented  the  Report  which  related 
to  these  Universities ;  for  we  should  have  looked 
like  mere  plagiarists,  if,  in  consequence  of  a  little 
longer  delay  in  issuing  it,  all  the  measures  of 
reform  we  proposed  had  been  anticipated  by  the 
spontaneous  action  of  the  Universities  them- 
selves. 

A  month  ago  I  should  have  gone  on  to  say  that 
one  might  speedily  expect  changes  of  another 
kind  in  Oxford  and  Cambridge.  A  Commission 
has  been  inquiring  into  the  revenues  of  the  many 
wealthy  societies,  in  more  or  less  direct  connection 
with  the  Universities,  resident  in  those  towns.  It 
is  said  that  the  Commission  has  reported,  and 
that,  for  the  first  time  in  recorded  history,  the 
nation,  and  perhaps  the  Colleges  themselves,  will 
know  what  they  are  worth.  And  it  was  announced 
that  a  statesman,  who,  whatever  his  other  merits 
or  defects,  has  aims  above  the  level  of  mere  party 
fighting,  and  a  clear  vision  into  the  most  complex 


194         UNIVERSITIES:  ACTUAL  AND   IDEAL         vm 

practical  problems,  meant  to  deal  with  these 
revenues. 

But,  Bos  locutus  est.  That  mysterious  indepen- 
dent variable  of  political  calculation,  Public 
Opinion — which  some  whisper  is,  in  the  present 
case,  very  much  the  same  thing  as  publican's 
opinion — has  willed  otherwise.  The  Heads  may 
return  to  their  wonted  slumbers — at  any  rate  for 
a  space. 

Is  the  spirit  of  change,  which  is  working  thus 
vigorously  in  the  South,  likely  to  affect  the 
Northern  Universities,  and  if  so,  to  what  extent  ? 
The  violence  of  fermentation  depends,  not  so  much 
on  the  quantity  of  the  yeast,  as  on  the  com- 
position of  the  wort,  and  its  richness  in  fer- 
mentable material ;  and,  as  a  preliminary  to  the 
discussion  of  this  question,  I  venture  to  call  to 
your  minds  the  essential  and  fundamental  differ- 
ences between  the  Scottish  and  the  English  type 
of  University. 

Do  not  charge  me  with  anything  worse  than 
official  egotism,  if  I  say  that  these  differences 
appear  to  be  largely  symbolised  by  my  own 
existence.  There  is  no  Rector  in  an  English 
University.  Now,  the  organisation  of  the  mem- 
bers of  a  University  into  Nations,  with  their 
elective  Rector,  is  the  last  relic  of  the  primitive 
constitution  of  Universities.  The  Rectorate  was 
the  most  important  of  all  offices  in  that  University 
of  Paris,  upon  the  model  of  which  the  University 


VIII          UNIVERSITIES  :  ACTUAL   AND   IDEAL        195 

of  Aberdeen  was  fashioned  ;  and  which  was  cer- 
tainly a  great  and  flourishing  institution  in  the 
twelfth  century. 

Enthusiasts  for  the  antiquity  of  one  of  the  two 
acknowledged  parents  of  all  Universities,  indeed, 
do  not  hesitate  to  trace  the  origin  of  the  "  Studium 
Parisiense"  up  to  that  wonderful  king  of  the 
Franks  and  Lombards,  Karl,  surnamed  the  Great, 
whom  we  all  called  Charlemagne,  and  believed  to 
be  a  Frenchman,  until  a  learned  historian,  by 
beneficent  iteration,  taught  us  better.  Karl  is 
said  not  to  have  been  much  of  a  scholar  himself, 
but  he  had  the  wisdom  of  which  knowledge  is 
only  the  servitor.  And  that  wisdom  enabled  him 
.to  see  that  ignorance  is  one  of  the  roots  of  all 
evil. 

In  the  Capitulary  which  enjoins  the  foundation 
of  monasterial  and  cathedral  schools,  he  says : 
'  Right  action  is  better  than  knowledge ;  but  in 
order  to  do  what  is  right,  we  must  know  what  is 
right."1  An  irrefragable  truth,  I  fancy.  Acting 
upon  it,  the  king  took  pretty  full  compulsory 
powers,  and  carried  into  effect  a  really  considerable 
and  effectual  scheme  of  elementary  education 
through  the  length  and  breadth  of  his  dominions. 

No  doubt  the  idolaters  out  by  the  Elbe,  in  what 

1  "Quamvis  enim  melius  sit  bene  facere  quam  nosse,  prtus 
tamen  est  nosse  quam  facere." — "Karoli  Magni  Regis  Con- 
stitutio  de  Scholis  per  singula  Episcopia  et  Monasteria  instit- 
ucndis, "  addressed  to  the  Abbot  of  Fulda.  Baluzius,  CcipUu> 
laria  Tlc/jum  Fraucorum,  T.  i.,  p.  202. 


106        UNIVERSITIES  :   ACTUAL   AND   IDEAL         vm 

is  now  part  of  Prussia,  objected  to  the  Frank ish 
king's  measures;  no  doubt  the  priests,  who  had 
never  hesitated  about  sacrificing  all  unbelievers  in 
their  fantastic  deities  and  futile  conjurations,  were 
the  loudest  in  chanting  the  virtues  of  toleration ; 
no   doubt  they  denounced  as  a  cruel  persecutor 
the   man   who   would  not  allow   them,  however 
sincere   they  might   be,  to   go   on  spreading  de- 
lusions which  debased  the  intellect,  as  much  as 
they  deadened  the  moral  sense,  and  undermined 
the  bonds  of  civil  allegiance ;  no  doubt,  if  they 
had  lived  in  these  times,  they  would  have  been 
able  to  show,  with  ease,  that  the  king's  proceed- 
ings  were   totally  contrary  to    the    best    liberal 
principles.     But  it  may  be  said,  in  justification  of 
the  Teutonic  ruler,  first,  that  he  was  born  before 
those  principles,  and  did  not  suspect  that  the  best 
way  of  getting  disorder  into  order  was  to  let  it 
alone  ;  and,  secondly,  that  his  rough  and  question- 
able proceedings  did,  more  or  less,  bring  about  the 
end  he  had  in  view.     For,  in  a  couple  of  centuries, 
the  schools  he  sowed  broadcast   produced   their 
crop  of  men,  thirsting  for  knowledge  and  craving 
for  culture.     Such  men  gravitating  towards  Paris, 
as  a  light  amidst  the  darkness  of  evil  days,  from 
Germany,   from    Spain,   from   Britain,  and   from 
Scandinavia,   came   together   by  natural   affinity. 
By  degrees  they  banded  themselves  into  a  society, 
which,  as  its  end  was  the  knowledge  of  all  things 
knowable,   called   itself  a   "  Studium    Generate ; n 


VIII         UNIVERSITIES:  ACTUAL   AND   IDEAL        197 

and  when  it  had  grown  into  a  recognised  corpora* 
tion,  acquired  the  name  of  "  Universitas  Studii 
Generalis"  which,  mark  you,  means  not  a  "  Useful 
Knowledge  Society,"  but  a  "  Knowledge-of-things- 
in-general  Society." 

And  thus  the  first  "  University/'  at  any  rate  on 
this  side  of  the  Alps,  came  into  being.  Originally 
it  had  but  one  Faculty,  that  of  Arts.  Its  aim  was 
to  be  a  centre  of  knowledge  and  culture ;  not  to 
be,  in  any  sense,  a  technical  school. 

The  scholars  seem  to  have  studied  Grammar, 
Logic,  and  Rhetoric ;  Arithmetic  and  Geometry ; 
Astronomy;  Theology;  and  Music.  Thus,  their 
work,  however  imperfect  and  faulty,  judged  by 
modern  lights,  it  may  have  been,  brought  them 
face  to  face  with  all  the  leading  aspects  of  the 
many-sided  mind  of  man.  For  these  studies  did 
really  contain,  at  any  rate  in  embryo — sometimes, 
it  may  be,  in  caricature — what  we  now  call 
Philosophy,  Mathematical  and  Physical  Science, 
and  Art.  And  I  doubt  if  the  curriculum  of  any 
modern  University  shows  so' clear  and  generous  a 
comprehension  of  what  is  meant  by  culture,  as 
this  old  Trivium  and  Quadrivium  does. 

The  students  who  had  passed  through  the 
University  course,  and  had  proved  themselves 
competent  to  teach,  became  masters  and  teachers 
of  their  younger  brethren.  Whence  the  distinc- 
tion of  Masters  and  Regents  on  the  one  hand,  and 
Scholars  on  the  other. 


108      UNIVERSITIES:  ACTUAL  AND  IDEAL      vm 

Rapid  growth  necessitated  organisation.  The 
Masters  and  Scholars  of  various  tongues  and 
countries  grouped  themselves  into  four  Nations  ; 
and  the  Nations,  by  their  own  votes  at  first,  and 
subsequently  by  those  of  their  Procurators,  or 
representatives,  elected  their  supreme  head  and 
governor,  the  Rector — at  that  time  the  sole 
representative  of  the  University,  and  a  very  real 
power,  who  could  defy  Provosts  interfering  from 
without ;  or  could  inflict  even  corporal  punishment 
on  disobedient  members  within  the  University. 

Such  was  the  primitive  constitution  of  the 
University  of  Paris.  It  is  in  reference  to  this 
original  state  of  things  that  I  have  spoken  of  the 
Rectorate,  and  all  that  appertains  to  it,  as  the 
sole  relic  of  that  constitution. 

But  this  original  organisation  did  not  last  long. 
Society  was  not  then,  any  more  than  it  is  now, 
patient  of  culture,  as  such.  It  says  to  everything, 
"Be  useful  to  me,  or  away  with  you."  And  to 
the  learned,  the  unlearned  man  said  then,  as  he 
does  now,  "  What  is  the  use  of  all  your  learning, 
unless  you  can  tell  me  what  I  want  to  know  ?  I 
am  here  blindly  groping  about,  and  constantly 
damaging  myself  by  collision  with  three  mighty 
powers,  the  power  of  the  invisible  God,  the  power 
of  my  fellow  Man,  and  the  power  of  brute  Nature. 
Let  your  learning  be  turned  to  the  study  of  these 
powers,  that  I  may  know  how  I  am  to  comport 
myself  with  regard  to  them."  In  answer  to  this 


VIII         UNIVERSITIES  :   ACTUAL   AND   IDEAL        190 

demand,  some  of  the  Masters  of  the  Faculty  of 
Arts  devoted  themselves  to  the  study  of  Theology, 
some  to  that  of  Law,  and  some  to  that  of 
Medicine  ;  and  they  became  Doctors — men  learned 
in  those  technical,  or,  as  we  now  call  them,  pro- 
fessional, branches  of  knowledge.  Like  cleaving 
to  like,  the  Doctors  formed  schools,  or  Faculties, 
of  Theology,  Law,  and  Medicine,  which  sometimes 
assumed  airs  of  superiority  over  their  parent,  the 
Faculty  of  Arts,  though  the  latter  always  asserted 
and  maintained  its  fundamental  supremacy. 

The  Faculties  arose  by  process  of  natural 
differentiation  out  of  the  primitive  University. 
Other  constituents,  foreign  to  its  nature,  were 
speedily  grafted  upon  it.  One  of  these  extraneous 
elements  was  forced  into  it  by  the  Roman  Church, 
which  in  those  days  asserted  with  effect,  that 
which  it  now  asserts,  happily  without  any  effect 
in  these  realms,  its  right  of  censorship  and 
control  over  all  teaching.  The  local  habitation 
of  the  University  lay  partly  in  the  lands  attached 
to  the  monastery  of  S.  Genevieve,  partly  in  the 
diocese  of  the  Bishop  of  Paris  ;  and  he  who  would 
teach  must  have  the  licence  of  the  Abbot,  or  of 
the  Bishop,  as  the  nearest  representative  of  the 
Pope,  so  to  do,  which  licence  was  granted  by  the 
Chancellors  of  these  Ecclesiastics. 

Thus,  if  I  am  what  archseologists  call  a 
"  survival "  of  the  primitive  head  and  ruler  of  the 
University,  your  Chancellor  stands  in  the  same 
73 


200        UNIVERSITIES  :   ACTUAL   AND  IDEAL         vni 

relation  to  the  Papacy ;  and,  with  all  respect  for 
his  Grace,  I  think  I  may  say  that  we  both  look 
terribly  shrunken  when  compared  with  our  great 
originals. 

Not  so  is  it  with  a  second  foreign  element, 
which  silently  dropped  into  the  soil  of  Uni- 
versities, like  the  grain  of  mustard-seed  in  the 
parable  ;  and,  like  that  grain,  grew  into  a  tree,  in 
whose  branches  a  whole  aviary  of  fowls  took 
shelter.  That  element  is  the  element  of  Endow- 
ment. It  differed  from  the  preceding,  in  its 
original  design  to  serve  as  a  prop  to  the  young 
plant,  not  to  be  a  parasite  upon  it.  The  charitable 
and  the  humane,  blessed  with  wealth,  were  very 
early  penetrated  by  the  misery  of  the  poor  student. 
And  the  wise  saw  that  intellectual  ability  is  not 
so  common  or  so  unimportant  a  gift  that  it  should 
be  allowed  to  run  to  waste  upon  mere  handicrafts 
and  chares.  The  man  who  was  a  blessing  to  his 
contemporaries,  but  who  so  often  has  been  con- 
verted into  a  curse,  by  the  blind  adherence  of  his 
posterity  to  the  letter,  rather  than  to  the  spirit, 
of  his  wishes — I  mean  the  "pious  founder" — 
gave  money  and  lands,  that  the  student,  who  was 
rich  in  brain  and  poor  in  all  else,  might  be  taken 
from  the  plough  or  from  the  stithy,  and  enabled 
to  devote  himself  to  the  higher  service  of 
mankind ;  and  built  colleges  and  halls  in  which 
he  might  be  not  only  housed  and  fed,  but  taught. 

The   Colleges   were   very  generally   placed   in 


VIII        UNIVERSITIES  :   ACTUAL  AND   IDEAL        201 

strict  subordination  to  the  University  by  their 
founders;  but,  in  many  cases,  their  endowment, 
consisting  of  land,  has  undergone  an  "  unearned 
increment,"  which  has  given  these  societies  a 
continually  increasing  weight  and  importance  as 
against  the  unendowed,  or  fixedly  endowed,  Uni- 
versity. In  Pharaoh's  dream,  the  seven  lean  kine 
eat  up  the  seven  fat  ones.  In  the  reality  of 
historical  fact,  the  fat  Colleges  have  eaten  up  the 
lean  Universities. 

Even  here  in  Aberdeen,  though  the  causes  at 
work  may  have  been  somewhat  different,  the 
effects  have  been  similar ;  and  you  see  how  much 
more  substantial  an  entity  is  the  Very  Reverend 
the  Principal,  analogue,  if  not  homologue,  of  the 
Principals  of  King's  College,  than  the  Rector, 
lineal  representative  of  the  ancient  monarchs  of 
the  University,  though  now,  little  more  than  a 
"  king  of  shreds  and  patches." 

Do  not  suppose  that,  in  thus  briefly  tracing  the 
process  of  University  metamorphosis,  I  have  had 
any  intention  of  quarrelling  with  its  results. 
Practically,  it  seems  to  me  that  the  broad  changes 
effected  in  1858  have  given  the  Scottish  Universities 
a  very  liberal  constitution,  with  as  much  real  ap- 
proximation to  the  primitive  state  of  things  as  is 
at  all  desirable.  If  your  fat  kine  have  eaten  the 
lean,  they  have  not  lain  down  to  chew  the  cud 
ever  since.  The  Scottish  Universities,  like  the 
English,  have  diverged  widely  enough  from  their 


202         UNIVERSITIES:    ACTUAL   AXD   IDEAL        VIII 

primitive  model ;  but  I  cannot  help  thinking  that 
the  northern  form  has  remained  more  faithful  to 
its  original,  not  only  in  constitution,  but,  what  is 
more  to  the  purpose,  in  view  of  the  cry  for  change, 
in  the  practical  application  of  the  endowments 
connected  with  it. 

In  Aberdeen,  these  endowments  are  numerous, 
but  so  sliiall  that,  taken  altogether,  they  are  not 
equal  to  the  revenue  of  a  single  third-rate  English 
college.  They  are  scholarships,  not  fellowships ; 
aids  to  do  work — not  rewards  for  such  work  as  it 
lies  within  the  reach  of  an  ordinary,  or  even  an 
extraordinary,  young  man  to  do.  You  do  not 
think  that  passing  a  respectable  examination  is  a 
fair  equivalent  for  an  income,  such  as  many  a 
grey-headed  veteran,  or  clergyman  would  envy ; 
and  which  is  larger  than  the  endowment  of  many 
Regius  chairs.  You  do  not  care  to  make  your 
University  a  school  of  manners  for  the  rich ;  of 
sports  for  the  athletic ;  or  a  hot-bed  of  high-fed, 
hypercritical  refinement,  more  destructive  to  vigour 
and  originality  than  are  starvation  and  oppression. 
No  ;  your  little  Bursaries  of  ten  and  twenty  (I 
believe  even  fifty)  pounds  a  year,  enabled  any  boy 
who  has  shown  ability  in  the  course  of  his  education 
in  those  remarkable  primary  schools,  which  have 
made  Scotland  the  power  she  is,  to  obtain  the 
highest  culture  the  country  can  give  him  ;  and 
when  he  is  armed  and  equipped,  his  Spartan 
Alma  Mater  tells  him  that,  so  far,  he  has  had  his 


Viil  UNIVERSITIES :  ACTUAL   AND   IDEAL        203 

wages  for  his  work,  and  that  he  may  go  and  eam 
the  rest. 

When  I  think  of  the  host  of  pleasant,  moneyed, 
well-bred  young  gentlemen,  who  do  a  little  learning 
and  much  boating  by  Cam  and  Isis,  the  vision  is  a 
pleasant  one  ;  and,  as  a  patriot,  I  rejoice  that  the 
youth  of  the  upper  and  richer  classes  of  the  nation 
receive  a  wholesome  and  a  manly  training,  however 
small  may  be  the  modicum  of  knowledge  they 
gather,  in  the  intervals  of  this,  their  serious  busi- 
ness. I  admit,  to  the  full,  the  social  and  political 
value  of  that  training.  But,  when  I  proceed  to 
consider  that  these  young  men  may  be  said  to 
represent  the  great  bulk  of  what  the  Colleges 
have  to  show  for  their  enormous  wealth,  plus,  at 
least,  a  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  a  year  apiece 
which  each  undergraduate  costs  his  parents  or 
guardians,  I  feel  inclined  to  ask,  whether  the  rate- 
in-aid  of  the  education  of  the  wealthy  and 
professional  classes,  thus  levied  on  the  resources 
of  the  community,  is  not,  after  all,  a  little  heavy  ? 
And,  still  further,  I  am  tempted  to  inquire  what 
has  become  of  the  indigent  scholars,  the  sons 
of  the  masses  of  the  people  whose  daily 
labour  just  suffices  to  meet  their  daily  wants,  for 
whose  benefit  these  rich  foundations  were  largely, 
if  not  mainly,  instituted  ?  It  seems  as  if  Pharaoh's 
dream  had  been  rigorously  carried  out,  and  that 
even  the  fat  scholar  has  eaten  the  lean  one.  And 
when  I  turn  from  this  picture  to  the  no  less  real 


204         UNIVERSITIES:   ACTUAL   AND   IDEAL         vill 

vision  of  many  a  brave  and  frugal  Scotch  boy,  spend- 
ing his  summer  in  hard  manual  labour,  that  he  may 
have  the  privilege  of  wending  his  way  in  autumn 
to  this  University,  with  a  bag  of  oatmeal,  ten 
pounds  in  his  pocket,  and  his  own  stout  heart  to 
depend  upon  through  the  northern  winter;  not 
bent  on  seeking 

"  The  bubble  reputation  at  the  cannon's  mouth," 

but  determined  to  wring  knowledge  from  the  hard 
hands  of  penury ;  when  I  see  him  win  through  all 
such  outward  obstacles  to  positions  of  wide  useful- 
ness and  well-earned  fame  ;  I  cannot  but  think  that, 
in  essence,  Aberdeen  has  departed  but  little  from 
the  primitive  intention  of  the  founders  of  Univer- 
sities, and  that  the  spirit  of  reform  has  so  much 
to  do  on  the  other  side  of  the  Border,  that  it  may 
be  long  before  he  has  leisure  to  look  this 
way. 

As  compared  with  other  actual  Universities, 
then,  Aberdeen,  may,  perhaps,  be  well  satisfied 
with  itself.  But. do  not  think  me  an  impracticable 
dreamer,  if  I  ask  you  not  to  rest  and  be  thankful 
in  this  state  of  satisfaction  ;  if  I  ask  you  to  con- 
sider awhile,  how  this  actual  good  stands  related 
to  that  ideal  better,  towards  which  both  men  and 
institutions  must  progress,  if  they  would  not 
retrograde. 

In  an  ideal  University,  as  I  conceive  it,  a  man 
should  be  able  to  obtain  instruction  in  all  forms 


VIII          UNIVERSITIES  :   ACTUAL   AND   IDEAL        205 

of  knowledge,  and  discipline  in  the  use  of  all  the 
methods  by  which  knowledge  is  obtained.  In 
such  a  University,  the  force  of  living  example 
should  fire  the  student  with  a  noble  ambition  to 
emulate  the  learning  of  learned  men,  and  to  follow 
in  the  footsteps  of  the  explorers  of  new  fields  of 
knowledge.  And  the  very  air  he  breathes  should 
be  charged  with  that  enthusiasm  for  truth,  that 
fanaticism  of  veracity,  which  is  a  greater  possession 
than  much  learning ;  a  nobler  gift  than  the  power 
of  increasing  knowledge ;  by  so  much  greater  and 
nobler  than  these,  as  the  moral  nature  of  man  is 
greater  than  the  intellectual ;  for  veracity  is  the 
heart  of  morality. 

But  the  man  who  is  all  morality  and  intellect, 
although  he  may  be  good  and  even  great,  is,  after 
all,  only  half  a  man.  There  is  beauty  in  the 
moral  world  and  in  the  intellectual  world ;  but 
there  is  also  a  beauty  which  is  neither  moral  nor 
intellectual — the  beauty  of  the  world  of  Art. 
There  are  men  who  are  devoid  of  the  power  of 
seeing  it,  as  there  are  men  who  are  born  deaf  and 
blind,  and  the  loss  of  those,  as  of  these,  is  simply 
infinite.  There  are  others  in  whom  it  is  an  over- 
powering passion  ;  happy  men,  born  with  the  pro- 
ductive, or  at  lowest,  the  appreciative,  genius  of 
the  Artist.  But,  in  the  mass  of  mankind,  the 
^Esthetic  faculty,  like  the  reasoning  power  and 
the  moral  sense,  needs  to  be  roused,  directed,  and 
cultivated ;  and  1  know  not  why  the  develop- 


206         UNIVERSITIES  :   ACTUAL  AND   IDEAL        vill 

ment  of  that  side  of  his  nature,  through  which 
man  has  access  to  a  perennial  spring  of  en- 
nobling pleasure,  should  be  omitted  from  any 
comprehensive  scheme  of  University  education. 

All  Universities  recognise  Literature  in  the 
sense  of  the  old  Rhetoric,  which  is  art  incarnate  in 
words.  Some,  to  their  credit,  recognise  Art  in  its 
narrower  sense,  to  a  certain  extent,  and  confer 
degrees  for  proficiency  in  some  of  its  branches.  If 
there  are  Doctors  of  Music,  why  should  there  be 
no  Masters  of  painting,  of  Sculpture,  of  Architec- 
ture ?  I  should  like  to  see  Professors  of  the  Fine 
Arts  in  every  University  ;  and  instruction  in  some 
branch  of  their  work  made  a  part  of  the  Arts 
curriculum. 

I  just  now  expressed  the  opinion  that,  in  our 
ideal  University,  a  man  should  be  able  to  obtain 
instruction  in  all  forms  of  knowledge.  Now,  by 
"  forms  of  knowledge  "  I  mean  the  great  classes  of 
things  knowable  ;  of  which  the  first,  in  logical, 
though  not  in  natural,  order  is  knowledge  relatingto 
the  scope  and  limits  of  the  mental  faculties  of  man, 
a  form  of  knowledge  which,  in  its  positive  aspect, 
answers  pretty  much  to  Logic  and  part  of 
Psychology,  while,  on  its  negative  and  critical  side, 
it  corresponds  with  Metaphysics. 

A  second  class  comprehends  all  that  knowledge 
which  relates  to  man's  welfare,  so  far  as  it  is  deter- 
mined by  his  own  acts,  or  what  we  call  his  con- 
duct. It  answers  to  Moral  and  Religious  philos- 


vin       UNIVERSITIES:  ACTUAL  AND  IDEAL     207 

ophy.  Practically,  it  is  the  most  directly  valuable 
of  all  forms  of  knowledge,  but  speculatively,  it  is 
limited  and  criticised  by  that  which  precedes  and 
by  that  which  follows  it  in  my  order  of  enumera- 
tion. 

A  third  class  embraces  knowledge  of  the 
phenomena  of  the  Universe,  as  that  which  lies 
about  the  individual  man ;  and  of  the  rules  which 
those  phaenomena  are  observed  to  follow  in  the 
order  of  their  occurrence,  which  we  term  the  laws 
of  Nature. 

This  is  what  ought  to  be  called  Natural  Science, 
or  Physiology,  though  those  terms  are  hopelessly 
diverted  from  such  a  meaning ;  and  it  includes  all 
exact  knowledge  of  natural  fact,  whether  Mathe- 
matical, Physical,  Biological,  or  Social. 

Kant  has  said  that  the  ultimate  object  of  all 
knowledge  is  to  give  replies  to  these  three  ques- 
tions :  What  can  I  do  ?  What  ought  I  to  do  ? 
What  may  I  hope  for  ?  The  forms  of  knowledge 
which  I  have  enumerated,  should  furnish  such 
replies  as  are  within  human  reach,  to  the  first  and 
second  of  these  questions.  While  to  the  third, 
perhaps  the  wisest  answer  is,  "  Do  what  you  can 
to  do  what  you  ought,  and  leave  hoping  and 
fearing  alone." 

If  this  be  a  just  and  an  exhaustive  classification 
of  the  forms  of  knowledge,  no  question  as  to  their 
relative  importance,  or  as  to  the  superiority  of 
one  to  the  other,  can  be  seriously  raised. 


208         UNIVERSITIES  :   ACTUAL   AND   IDEAL         VIII 

On  the  face  of  the  matter,  it  is  absurd  to  ask 
whether  it  is  more  important  to  know  the  limits  of 
one's  powers ;  or  the  ends  for  which  they  ought  to 
be  exerted ;  or  the  conditions  under  which  they 
must  be  exerted.  One  may  as  well  inquire  which 
of  the  terms  of  a  Rule  of  Three  sum  one  ought  to 
know,  in  order  to  get  a  trustworthy  result.  Prac- 
tical life  is  such  a  sum,  in  which  your  duty  multi- 
plied into  your  capacity,  and  divided  by  your 
circumstances,  gives  you  the  fourth  term  in  the 
proportion,  which  is  your  deserts,  with  great 
accuracy.  All  agree,  I  take  it,  that  men  ought 
to  have  these  three  kinds  of  knowledge.  The  .so- 
called  "  conflict  of  studies  "  turns  upon  the  ques- 
tion of  how  they  may  best  be  obtained. 

The  founders  of  Universities  held  the  theory 
that  the  Scriptures  and  Aristotle  taken  together, ' 
the  latter  being  limited  by  the  former,  contained 
all  knowledge  worth  having,  and  that  the  business 
of  philosophy  was  to  interpret  and  co-ordinate 
these  two.  I  imagine  that  in  the  twelfth  century 
this  was  a  very  fair  conclusion  from  known  facts. 
Nowhere  in  the  world,  in  those  days,  was  there 
such  an  encyclopedia  of  knowledge  of  all  three 
classes,  as  is  to  be  found  in  those  writings.  The 
scholastic  philosophy  is  a  wonderful  monument  of 
the  patience  and  ingenuity  with  which  the  human 
mind  toiled  to  build  up  a  logically  consistent 
theory  of  the  Universe,  out  of  such  materials. 
And  that  philosophy  is  by  no  means  dead  and 


VIII          UNIVERSITIES  :   ACTUAL   AND   IDEAL        209 

buried,  as  many  vainly  suppose.  On  the  contrary, 
numbers  of  men  of  no  mean  learning  and  accom- 
plishment, and  sometimes  of  rare  power  and 
subtlety  of  thought,  hold  by  it  as  the  best  theory 
of  things  which  has  yet  been  stated.  And,  what 
is  still  more  remarkable,  men  who  speak  the  lan- 
guage of  modern  philosophy,  nevertheless  think 
the  thoughts  of  the  schoolmen.  "  The  voice  is 
the  voice  of  Jacob,  but  the  hands  are  the  hands 
of  Esau."  Every  day  I  hear  "  Cause,"  "  Law," 
"Force,"  "Vitality,"  spoken  of  as  entities,  by 
people  who  can  enjoy  Swift's  joke  about  the  meat- 
roasting  quality  of  the  smoke-jack,  and  comfort 
themselves  with  the  reflection  that  they  are  not 
even  as  those  benighted  schoolmen. 

Well,  this  great  system  had  its  day,  and  then  it 
was  sapped  and  mined  by  two  influences.  The 
first  was  the  study  of  classical  literature,  which 
familiarised  men  with  methods  of  philosophising; 
with  conceptions  of  the  highest  Good  ;  with  ideas 
of  the  order  of  Nature  ;  with  notions  of  Literary 
and  Historical  Criticism ;  and,  above  all,  with 
visions  of  Art,  of  a  kind  which  not  only  would  not 
fit  into  the  scholastic  scheme,  but  showed  them  a 
pre-Christian,  and  indeed  altogether  un-Christian 
world,  of  such  grandeur  and  beauty  that  they 
ceased  to  think  of  any  other.  They  were  as  men 
who  had  kissed  the  Fairy  Queen,  and  wandering 
with  her  in  the  dim  loveliness  of  the  under- world, 


210         UNIVERSITIES:   ACTUAL   AND   IDEAL         Till 

cared  not  to  return  to  the  familiar  ways  of  home 
and  fatherland,  though  they  lay,  at  arm's  length, 
overhead.  Cardinals  were  more  familiar  with 
Virgil  than  with  Isaiah  ;  and  Popes  laboured,  with 
great  success,  to  re-paganise  Rome. 

The  second  influence  was  the  slow,  but  sure, 
growth  of  the  physical  sciences.  It  was  discovered 
that  some  results  of  speculative  thought,  of  im- 
mense practical  and  theoretical  importance,  can  be 
verified  by  observation  ;  and  are  always  true,  how- 
ever severely  they  may  be  tested.  Here,  at  any 
rate,  was  knowledge,  to  the  certainty  of  which  no 
authority  could  add,  or  take  away,  one  jot  or  tittle, 
and  to  which  the  tradition  of  a  thousand  years 
was  as  insignificant  as  the  hearsay  of  yesterday. 
To  the  scholastic  system,  the  study  of  classical 
literature  might  be  inconvenient  and  distracting, 
but  it  was  possible  to  hope  that  it  could  be  kept 
within  bounds.  Physical  science,  on  the  other 
hand,  was  an  irreconcilable  enemy,  to  be  excluded 
at  all  hazards.  The  College  of  Cardinals  has  not 
distinguished  itself  in  Physics  or  Physiology  ;  and 
no  Pope  has,  as  yet,  set  up  public  laboratories  in 
the  Vatican. 

People  do  not  always  formulate  the  beliefs  on 
which  they  act'.  The  instinct  of  fear  and  dislike 
is  quicker  than  the  reasoning  process;  and  I 
suspect  that,  taken  in  conjunction  with  some 
other  causes,  such  instinctive  aversion  is  at  the 


VIII          UNIVERSITIES:   ACTUAL   AND   IDEAL       211 

bottom  of  the  long  exclusion  of  any  serious 
discipline  in  the  physical  sciences  from  the  general 
curriculum  of  Universities ;  while,  on  the  other 
hand,  classical  literature  has  been  gradually  made 
the  backbone  of  the  Arts  course. 

I  am  ashamed  to  repeat  here  what  I  have  said 
elsewhere,  in  season  and  out  of  season,  respecting 
the  value  of  Science  as  knowledge  and  discipline. 
But  the  other  day  I  met  with  some  passages  in  the 
Address  to  another  Scottish  University,  of  a  great 
thinker,  recently  lost  to  us,  which  express  so  fully 
and  yet  so  tersely,  the  truth  in  this  matter  that  I 
am  fain  to  quote  them  : — 

"  To  question  all  things  ; — never  to  turn  away 
from  any  difficulty ;  to  accept  no  doctrine  either 
from  ourselves  or  from  other  people  without  a  rigid 
scrutiny  by  negative  criticism ;  letting  no  fallacy, 
or  incoherence,  or  confusion  of  thought,  step  by 
unperceived ;  above  all,  to  insist  upon  having  the 
meaning  of  a  word  clearly  understood  before  using 
it,  and  the  meaning  of  a  proposition  before 
assenting  to  it ; — these  are  the  lessons  we  learn  " 
from  workers  in  Science.  "  With  all  this  vigorous 
management  of  the  negative  element,  they  inspire 
no  scepticism  about  the  reality  of  truth  or  in- 
difference to  its  pursuit.  The  noblest  enthusiasm, 
both  for  the  search  after  truth  and  for  applying  it 
to  its  highest  uses,  pervades  those  writers/1  "  In 
cultivating,  therefore,"  science  as  an  essential 
ingredient  in  education,  "  we  are  all  the  while 


212        UNIVERSITIES:   ACTUAL   AND   IDEAL         vni 

laying  an  admirable  foundation  for  ethical  and 
philosophical  culture/' l 

The  passages  I  have  quoted  were  uttered  by 
John  Stuart  Mill ;  but  you  cannot  hear  inverted 
commas,  and  it  is  therefore  right  that  I  should  add, 
without  delay,  that  I  have  taken  the  liberty  of 
substituting  "  workers  in  science "  for  "  ancient 
dialecticians,"  and  "  Science  as  an  essential  in- 
gredient in  education  "  for  "  the  ancient  languages 
as  our  best  literary  education."  Mill  did,  in  fact, 
deliver  a  noble  panegyric  upon  classical  studies. 
I  do  not  doubt  its  justice,  nor  presume  to  question 
its  wisdom.  But  I  venture  to  maintain  that  no 
wise  or  just  judge,  who  has  a  knowledge  of  the 
facts,  will  hesitate  to  say  that  it  applies  with  equal 
force  to  scientific  training. 

But  it  is  only  fair  to  the  Scottish  Universities  to 
point  out  that  they  have  long  understood  the  value 
of  Science  as  a  branch  of  general  education.  I 
observe,  with  the  greatest  satisfaction,  that  can- 
didates for  the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts  in  this 
University  are  required  to  have  a  knowledge,  not 
only  of  Mental  and  Moral  Philosophy,  and  of 
Mathematics  and  Natural  Philosophy,  but  of 
Natural  History,  in  addition  to  the  ordinary  Latin 
and  Greek  course ;  and  that  a  candidate  may  take 
honours  in  these  subjects  and  in  Chemistry. 

1  Inaugural  Address  delivered  to  the  University  of  St.  Andrew, 
February  1,  1867,  by  J.  S.  Mill,  Rector  of  the  University  (pp. 
82,  33). 


VIII         UNIVERSITIES  :   ACTUAL   AND   IDEAL 

I  do  not  know  what  the  requirements  of  your 
examiners  may  be,  but  I  sincerely  trust  they  are 
not  satisfied  with  a  mere  book  knowledge  of  these 
matters.  For  my  own  part  I  would  not  raise  a 
finger,  if  I  could  thereby  introduce  mere  book 
work  in  science  into  every  Arts  curriculum  in  the 
country.  Let  those  who  want  to  study  books 
devote  themselves  to  Literature,  in  which  we  have 
the  perfection  of  books,  both  as  to  substance  and  as 
to  form.  If  I  may  paraphrase  Hobbes's  well-known 
aphorism,  I  would  say  that  "  books  are  the  money 
of  Literature,  but  only  the  counters  of  Science," 
Science  (in  the  sense  in  which  I  now  use  the  term) 
being  the  knowledge  of  fact,  of  which  every  verbal 
description  is  but  an  incomplete  and  symbolic 
expression.  And  be  assured  that  no  teaching  of 
science  is  worth  anything,  as  a  mental  discipline, 
which  is  not  based  upon  direct  perception  of  the 
facts,  and  practical  exercise  of  the  observing  and 
logical  faculties  upon  them.  Even  in  such  a  simple 
matter  as  the  mere  comprehension  of  form,  ask  the 
most  practised  and  widely  informed  anatomist  what 
is  the  difference  between  his  knowledge  of  a 
structure  which  he  has  read  about,  and  his  know- 
ledge of  the  same  structure  when  he  has  seen  it  for 
himself;  and  he  will  tell  you  that  the  two  things 
are  not  comparable — the  difference  is  infinite. 
Thus  I  am  very  strongly  inclined  to  agree  with 
some  learned  schoolmasters  who  say  that,  in  their 
experience,  the  teaching  of  science  is  all  waste  time. 


214         UNIVERSITIES  :   ACTUAL   AND   IDEAL         vm 

As  they  teach  it,  I  have  no  doubt  it  is.  But  to 
teach  it  otherwise  requires  an  amount  of  personal 
labour  and  a  development  of  means  and  appliances, 
which  must  strike  horror  and  dismay  into  a  man 
accustomed  to  mere  book  work ;  and  who  has  been 
in  the  habit  of  teaching  a  class  of  fifty  without 
much  strain  upon  his  energies.  And  this  is  one  of 
the  real  difficulties  in  the  way  of  the  introduction 
of  physical  science  into  the  ordinary  University 
course,  to  which  I  have  alluded.  It  is  a  difficulty 
which  will  not  be  overcome,  until  years  of  patient 
study  have  organised  scientific  teaching  as  well 
as,  or  I  hope  better  than,  classical  teaching  has 
been  organised  hitherto. 

A  little  while  ago,  I  ventured  to  hint  a  doubt 
as  to  the  perfection  of  some  of  the  arrangements 
in  the  ancient  Universities  of  England  ;  but,  in 
their  provision  for  giving  instruction  in  Science  as 
such,  and  without  direct  reference  to  any  of  its 
practical  applications,  they  have  set  a  brilliant  ex- 
ample. Within  the  last  twenty  years,  Oxford  alone 
has  sunk  more  than  a  hundred  and  twenty  thou- 
sand pounds  in  building  and  furnishing  Physical, 
Chemical,  and  Physiological  Laboratories,  and  a 
magnificent  Museum,  arranged  with  an  almost 
luxurious  regard  for  the  needs  of  the  student. 
Cambridge,  less  rich,  but  aided  by  the  munificence 
of  her  Chancellor,  is  taking  the  same  course ;  and 
in  a  few  years,  it  will  be  for  no  lack  of  the  mean* 
and  appliances  of  sound  teaching,  if  the  mass  of 


VIII         UNIVERSITIES  :   ACTUAL   AND   IDEAL        215 

English  University  men  remain  in  their  present 
state  of  barbarous  ignorance  of  even  the  rudiments 
of  scientific  culture. 

Yet  another  step  needs  to  be  made  before 
Science  can  be  said  to  have  taken  its  proper  place 
in  the  Universities.  That  is  its  recognition  as  a 
Faculty,  or  branch  of  study  demanding  recognition 
and  special  organisation,  on  account  of  its  bearing 
on  the  wants  of  mankind.  The  Faculties  of  Theo- 
logy, Law,  and  Medicine,  are  technical  schools, 
intended  to  equip  men  who  have  received  general 
culture,  with  the  special  knowledge  which  is 
needed  for  the  proper  performance  of  the  duties 
of  clergymen,  lawyers,  and  medical  practitioners. 

When  the  material  well-being  of  the  country 
depended  upon  rude  pasture  and  agriculture,  and 
still  ruder  mining ;  in  the  days  when  all  the 
innumerable  applications  of  the  principles  of 
physical  science  to  practical  purposes  were  non- 
existent even  as  dreams ;  days  which  men  living 
may  have  heard  their  fathers  speak  of;  what  little 
physical  science  could  be  seen  to  bear  directly 
upon  human  life,  lay  within  the  province  of 
Medicine.  Medicine  was  the  foster-mother  of 
Chemistry,  because  it  has  to  do  with  the  prepara- 
tion of  drugs  and  the  detection  of  poisons ;  of 
Botany,  because  it  enabled  the  physician  to 
recognise  medicinal  herbs ;  of  Comparative  Ana- 
tomy and  Physiology,  because  the  man  who  studied 
Human  Anatomy  and  Physiology  for  purely 

74 


216         UNIVERSITIES  :   ACTUAL  AND   IDEAL         Till 

medical  purposes  was  led  to  extend  his  studies  to 
the  rest  of  the  animal  world. 

Within  my  recollection,  the  only  way  in  which  a 
student  could  obtain  anything  like  a  training  in 
Physical  Science,  was  by  attending  the  lectures  of 
the  Professors  of  Physical  and  Natural  Science 
attached  to  the  Medical  Schools.  But,  in  the 
course  of  the  last  thirty  years,  both  foster-mother 
and  child  have  grown  so  big,  that  they  threaten 
not  only  to  crush  one  another,  but  to  press  the 
very  life  out  of  the  unhappy  student  who  enters 
the  nursery  ;  to  the  great  detriment  of  all  three. 

I  speak  in  the  presence  of  those  who  know 
practically  what  medical  education  is  ;  for  I  may 
assume  that  a  large  proportion  of  my  hearers  are 
more  or  less  advanced  students  of  medicine.  I 
appeal  to  the  most  industrious  and  conscientious 
among  you,  to  those  who  are  most  deeply  pene- 
trated with  a  sense  of  the  extremely  serious 
responsibilities  which  attach  to  the  calling  of  a 
medical  practitioner,  when  I  ask  whether,  out  of 
the  four  years  which  you  devote  to  your  studies, 
you  ought  to  spare  even  so  much  as  an  hour  for 
any  work  which  does  not  tend  directly  to  fit  you 
for  your  duties  ? 

Consider  what  that  work  is.  Its  foundation  is  a 
sound  and  practical  acquaintance  with  the  structure 
of  the  human  organism,  and  with  the  modes  and 
conditions  of  its  action  in  health.  I  say  a  sound 
and  practical  acquaintance,  to  guard  against  the 


\nn          UNIVERSITIES  :   ACTUAL   AND   IDEAL        217 

supposition  that  my  intention  is  to  suggest  that 
you  ought  all  to  be  minute  anatomists  and  accom- 
plished physiologists.  The  devotion  of  your  whole 
four  years  to  Anatomy  and  Physiology  alone, 
would  be  totally  insufficient  to  attain  that  end. 
What  I  mean  is,  the  sort  of  practical,  familiar, 
finger-end  knowledge  which  a  watchmaker  has 
of  a  watch,  and  which  you  expect  that  craftsman, 
as  an  honest  man,  to  have,  when  you  entrust  a 
watch  that  goes  badly,  to  him.  It  is  a  kind  of 
knowledge  which  is  to  be  acquired,  not  in  the 
lecture-room,  nor  in  the  library,  but  in  the  dis- 
secting-room and  the  laboratory.  It  is  to  be  had 
not  by  sharing  your  attention  between  these  and 
sundry  other  subjects,  but  by  concentrating  your 
minds,  week  after  week,  and  month  after  month, 
six  or  seven  hours  a  day,  upon  all  the  com- 
plexities of  organ  and  function,  until  each  of  the 
greater  truths  of  anatomy  and  physiology  has 
become  an  organic  part  of  your  minds — until 
you  would  know  them  if  you  were  roused  and 
questioned  in  the  middle  of  the  night,  as  a  man 
knows  the  geography  of  his  native  place  and 
the  daily  life  of  his  home.  That  is  the  sort  of 
knowledge  which,  once  obtained,  is  a  life-long 
possession.  Other  occupations  may  fill  your 
minds — it  may  grow  dim,  and  seem  to  be  for- 
gotten— but  there  it  is,  like  the  inscription  on  a 
battered  and  defaced  coin,  which  comes  out 
when  you  warm  it. 


218        UNIVERSITIES  :   ACTUAL   AND   IDEAL         vm 

If  I  had  the  power  to  remodel  Medical  Educa- 
tion, the  first  two  years  of  the  medical  curriculum 
should  be  devoted  to  nothing  but  such  thorough 
study  of  Anatomy  and  Physiology,  with  Physiolo- 
gical Chemistry  and  Physics ;  the  student  should 
then  pass  a  real,  practical  examination  in  these 
subjects ;  and,  having  gone  through  that  ordeal 
satisfactorily,  he  should  be  troubled  no  more 
with  them.  His  whole  mind  should  then  be  given 
with  equal  intentness  to  Therapeutics,  in  its 
broadest  sense,  to  Practical  Medicine  and  to 
Surgery,  with  instruction  in  Hygiene  and  in 
Medical  Jurisprudence;  and  of  these  subjects  only 
— surely  there  are  enough  of  them — should  he 
be  required  to  show  a  knowledge  in  his  final  ex- 
amination. 

I  cannot  claim  any  special  property  in  this 
theory  of  what  the  medical  curriculum  should  be, 
for  I  find  that  views,  more  or  less  closely  approxi- 
mating these,  are  held  by  all  who  have  seriously 
considered  the  very  grave  and  pressing  question  of 
Medical  Reform ;  and  have,  indeed,  been  carried 
into  practice,  to  some  extent,  by  the  most  en- 
lightened Examining  Boards.  I  have  heard  but 
two  kinds  of  objections  to  them.  There  is  first, 
the  objection  of  vested  interests,  which  I  will  not 
deal  with  here,  because  I  want  to  make  myself  as 
pleasant  as  I  can,  and  no  discussions  are  so  un- 
pleasant as  those  which  turn  on  such  points.  And 
there  is,  secondly,  the  much  more  respectable 


VIII         UNIVERSITIES  :   ACTUAL   AND   IDEAL        210 

objection,  which  takes  the  general  form  of  the 
reproach  that,  in  thus  limiting  the  curriculum,  we 
are  seeking  to  narrow  it.  We  are  told  that  the 
medical  man  ought  to  be  a  person  of  good  educa- 
tion and  general  information,  if  his  profession  is  to 
hold  its  own  among  other  professions ;  that  he 
ought  to  know  Botany,  or  else,  if  he  goes  abroad, 
he  will  not  be  able  to  tell  poisonous  fruits  from 
edible  ones ;  that  he  ought  to  know  drugs,  as  a 
druggist  knows  them,  or  he  will  not  be  able  to  tell 
sham  bark  and  senna  from  the  real  articles ;  that 
he  ought  to  know  Zoology,  because — well,  I  really 
have  n'ever  been  able  to  learn  exactly  why  he  is  to 
be  expected  to  know  zoology.  There  is,  indeed, 
a  popular  superstition,  that  doctors  know  all 
about  things  that  are  queer  or  nasty  to  the  general 
mind,  and  may,  therefore,  be  reasonably  expected 
to  know  the  "  barbarous  binomials  "  applicable  to 
snakes,  snails,  and  slugs ;  an  amount  of  informa- 
tion with  which  the  general  mind  is  usually  com- 
pletely satisfied.  And  there  is  a  scientific  su- 
perstition that  Physiology  is  largely  aided  by 
Comparative  Anatomy — a  superstition  which,  like 
most  superstitions,  once  had  a  grain  of  truth  at 
bottom  ;  but  the  grain  has  become  homoeopathic, 
since  Physiology  took  its  modern  experimental 
development,  and  became  what  it  is  now,  the  appli- 
cation of  the  principles  of  Physics  and  Chemistry 
to  the  elucidation  of  the  phenomena  of  life, 

I  hold  as  strongly  as  any  one  can  do,  that  the 


220         UNIVERSITIES  :   ACTUAL  AND   IDEAL         viTI 

medical  practitioner  ought  to  be  a  person  of  educa- 
tion and  good  general  culture ;  but  I  also  hold  by 
the  old  theory  of  a  Faculty,  that  a  man  should 
have  his  general  culture  before  he  devotes  himself 
to  the  special  studies  of  that  Faculty ;  and  I 
venture  to  maintain,  that,  if  the  general  culture 
obtained  in  the  Faculty  of  Arts  were  what  it  ought 
to  be,  the  student  would  have  quite  as  much 
knowledge  of  the  fundamental  principles  of  Physics, 
of  Chemistry,  and  of  Biology,  as  he  needs,  before 
he  commenced  his  special  medical  studies. 

Moreover,  I  would  urge,  that  a  thorough  study 
of  Human  Physiology  is,  in  itself,  an  education 
broader  and  more  comprehensive  than  much  that 
passes  under  that  name.  There  is  no  side  of  the 
intellect  which  it  does  not  call  into  play,  no  region 
of  human  knowledge  into  which  either  its  roots, 
or  its  branches,  do  not  extend ;  like  the  Atlantic 
between  the  Old  and  the  New  Worlds,  its  waves 
wash  the  shores  of  the  two  worlds  of  matter  and 
of  mind ;  its  tributary  streams  flow  from  both  J 
through  its  waters,  as  yet  unfurrowed  by  the 
keel  of  any  Columbus,  lies  the  road,  if  such 
there  be,  from  the  one  to  the  other ;  far  away 
from  that  North-west  Passage  of  mere  specu- 
lation, in  which  so  many  brave  souls  have  been 
hopelessly  frozen  up. 

But  whether  I  am  right  or  wrong  about  all  this, 
the  patent  fact  of  the  limitation  of  time  remains, 
As  the  song  runs  : — 


VIII         UNIVERSITIES  :   ACTUAL   AND  IDEAL        221 

"  If  a  man  could  be  sure 

That  his  life  would  endure 
For  the  space  of  a  thousand  long  years " 

he  might  do  a  number  of  things  not  practicable 
under  present  conditions.  Methuselah  might,  with 
much  propriety,  have  taken  half  a  century  to  get 
his  doctor's  degree ;  and  might,  very  fairly,  have 
been  required  to  pass  a  practical  examination  upon 
the  contents  of  the  British  Museum,  before  com- 
mencing practice  as  a  promising  young  fellow  of 
two  hundred,  or  thereabouts.  But  you  have  four 
years  to  do  your  work  in,  and  are  turned  loose,  to 
save  or  slay,  at  two  or  three  and  twenty. 

Now,  I  put  it  to  you,  whether  you  think  that, 
when  you  come  down  to  the  realities  of  life — when 
you  stand  by  the  sick-bed,  racking  you  brains  for 
the  principles  which  shall  furnish  you  with  the 
means  of  interpreting  symptoms,  and  forming  a 
rational  theory  of  the  condition  of  your  patient,  it 
will  be  satisfactory  for  you  to  find  that  those 
principles  are  not  there — although,  to  use  the 
examination  slang  .which  is  unfortunately  too 
familiar  to  me,  you  can  quite  easily  "give  an 
account  of  the  leading  peculiarities  of  the  MarsM- 
pialia"  or  "  enumerate  the  chief  characters  of  the 
Composite,"  or  "state  the  class  and  order  of  the 
animal  from  which  Castoreum  is  obtained." 

I  really  do  not  think  that  state  of  things  will 
be  satisfactory  to  you  ;  I  am  very  sure  it  will  not 
be  so  to  your  patient.  Indeed,  I  am  so  narrow- 


222        UNIVERSITIES:   ACTUAL   AND   IDEAL         vill 

minded  myself,  that  if  I  had  to  choose  between 
two  physicians — one  who  did  not  know  whether  a 
whale  is  a  fish  or  not,  and  could  not  tell  gentian 
from  ginger,  but  did  understand  the  applications  of 
the  institutes  of  medicine  to  his  art ;  while  the 
other,  like  Talleyrand's  doctor,  "  knew  everything, 
even  a  little  physic" — with  all  my  love  for 
breadth  of  culture,  I  should  assuredly  consult  the 
former. 

It  is  not  pleasant  to  incur  the  suspicion  of  an 
inclination  to  injure  or  depreciate  particular 
branches  of  knowledge.  But  the  fact  that  one  of 
those  which  I  should  have  no  hesitation  in  ex- 
cluding from  the  medical  curriculum,  is  that  to 
which  my  own  life  has  been  specially  devoted, 
should,  at  any  rate,  defend  me  from  the  suspicion 
of  being  urged  to  this  course  by  any  but  the  very 
gravest  considerations  of  the  public  welfare. 

And  I  should  like,  further,  to  call  your  attention 
to  the  important  circumstance  that,  in  thus  pro- 
posing the  exclusion  of  the  study  of  such  branches 
of  knowledge  as  Zoology  and  Botany,  from  those 
compulsory  upon  the  medical  student,  I  am  not, 
for  a  moment,  suggesting  their  exclusion  from  the 
University.  I  think  that  sound  and  practical 
instruction  in  the  elementary  facts  and  broad 
principles  of  Biology  should  form  part  of  the  Arts 
Curriculum:  and  here,  happily,  my  theory  is  in 
entire  accordance  with  your  practice.  Moreover, 
as  I  have  already  said,  I  have  no  sort  of  doubt 


VIII          UNIVERSITIES:  ACTUAL   AND  IDEAL        223 

that,  in  view  of  the  relation  of  Physical  Science 
to  the  practical  life  of  the  present  day,  it  has  the 
same  right  as  Theology,  Law,  and  Medicine,  to  a 
Faculty  of  its  own  in  which  men  shall  be  trained 
to  be  professional  men  of  science.  It  may  be 
doubted  whether  Universities  are  the  places  for 
technical  schools  of  Engineering  or  applied  Chem- 
istry, or  Agriculture.  But  there  can  surely  be 
little  question,  that  instruction  in  the  branches 
of  Science  which  lie  at  the  foundation  of  these 
Arts,  of  a  far  more  advanced  and  special  character 
than  could,  with  any  propriety,  be  included  in  the 
ordinary  Arts  Curriculum,  ought  to  be  obtainable 
by  means  of  a  duly  organised  Faculty  of  Science  in 
every  University. 

The  establishment  of  such  a  Faculty  would  have 
the  additional  advantage  of  providing,  in  some 
measure,  for  one  of  the  greatest  wants  of  our  time 
and  country.  I  mean  the  proper  support  and  en- 
couragement of  original  research. 

The  other  day,  an  emphatic  friend  of  mine  com- 
mitted himself  to  the  opinion  that,  in  England,  it 
is  better  for  a  man's  worldly  prospects  to  be  a 
drunkard,  than  to  be  smitten  with  the  divine  dip- 
somania of  the  original  investigator.  I  am  inclined 
to  think  he  was  not  far  wrong.  And,  be  it  observed, 
that  the  question  is  not,  whether  such  a  man  shall 
be  able  to  make  as  much  out  of  his  abilities  as  his 
brother,  of  like  ability,  who  goes  into  Law,  or 
Engineering,  or  Commerce  ;  it  is  not  a  question  of 


224        UNIVERSITIES  :   ACTUAL  AND   IDEAL         vill 

"  maintaining  a  due  number  of  saddle  horses,"  as 
George  Eliot  somewhere  puts  it — it  is  a  question 
of  living  or  starving. 

If  a  student  of  my  own  subject  shows  power  and 
originality,  I  dare  not  advise  him  to  adopt  a 
scientific  career ;  for,  supposing  he  is  able  to 
maintain  himself  until  he  has  attained  distinction, 
I  cannot  give  him  the  assurance  that  any  amount 
of  proficiency  in  the  Biological  Sciences  will  be 
convertible  into,  even  the  most  modest,  bread  and 
cheese.  And  I  believe  that  the  case  is  as  bad,  or 
perhaps  worse,  with  other  branches  of  Science. 
In  this  respect  Britain,  whose  immense  wealth 
and  prosperity  hang  upon  the  thread  of  Applied 
Science,  is  far  behind  France,  and  infinitely  behind 
Germany. 

And  the  worst  of  it  is,  that  it  is  very  difficult  to 
see  one's  way  to  any  immediate  remedy  for  this 
state  of  affairs  which  shall  be  free  from  a  tendency 
to  become  worse  than  the  disease. 

Great  schemes  for  the  Endowment  of  Research 
have  been  proposed.  It  has  been  suggested,  that 
Laboratories  for  all  branches  of  Physical  Science, 
provided  with  every  apparatus  needed  by  the  in- 
vestigator, shall  be  established  by  the  State  :  and 
shall  be  accessible,  under  due  conditions  and 
regulations,  to  all  properly  qualified  persons.  I 
see  no  objection  to  the  principle  of  such  a  proposal. 
If  it  be  legitimate  to  spend  great  sums  of  money 
on  public  Libraries  and  public  collections  of  Painting 


Viri          UNIVERSITIES  :   ACTUAL   AND   IDEAL        225 

and  Sculpture,  in  aid  of  the  Man  of  Letters,  or  the 
Artist,  or  for  the  mere  sake  of  affording  pleasure 
to  the  general  public.  I  apprehend  that  it  cannot 
be  illegitimate  to  do  as  much  for  the  promotion  of 
scientific  investigation.  To  take  the  lowest  ground, 
as  a  mere  investment  of  money,  the  latter  is  likely 
to  be  much  more  immediately  profitable.  To  my 
mind,  the  difficulty  in  the  way  of  such  schemes  is 
not  theoretical,  but  practical.  Given  the  labora- 
tories, how  are  the  investigators  to  be  maintained  ? 
What  career  is  open  to  those  who  have  been  thus 
encouraged  to  leave  bread-winning  pursuits  ?  If 
they  are  to  be  provided  for  by  endowment,  we 
come  back  to  the  College  Fellowship  system,  the 
results  of  which,  for  Literature,  have  not  been  so 
brilliant  that  one  would  wish  to  see  it  extended  to 
Science ;  unless  some  much  better  securities  than 
at  present  exist  can  be  taken  that  it  will  foster 
real  work.  You  know  that  among  the  Bees,  it 
depends  on  the  kind  of  cell  in  which  the  egg  is 
deposited,  and  the  quantity  and  quality  of  food 
which  is  supplied  to  the  grub,  whether  it  shall  turn 
out  a  busy  little  worker  or  a  big  idle  queen.  And, 
in  the  human  hive,  the  cells  of  the  endowed  larvae 
are  always  tending  to  enlarge,  and  their  food  to 
improve,  until  we  get  queens,  beautiful  to  behold, 
but  which  gather  no  honey  and  build  no  comb. 

I  do  not  say  that  these  difficulties  may  not  be 
overcome,  but  their  gravity  is  not  to  be  lightly 
estimated. 


226         UNIVERSITIES:   ACTUAL   AND   IDEAL        vm 

In  the  meanwhile,  there  is  one  step  in  the  direc- 
tion of  the  endowment  of  research  which  is  free 
from  such  objections.  It  is  possible  to  place  the 
scientific  enquirer  in  a  position  in  which  he  shall 
have  ample  leisure  and  opportunity  for  original 
work,  and  yet  shall  give  a  fair  and  tangible  equiva- 
lent for  those  privileges.  The  establishment  of  a 
Faculty  of  Science  in  every  University,  implies  that 
of  a  corresponding  number  of  Professorial  chairs, 
the  incumbents  of  which  need  not  be  so  burdened 
with  teaching  as  to  deprive  them  of  ample  leisure 
for  original  work.  I  do  not  think  that  it  is  any 
impediment  to  an  original  investigator  to  have  to 
devote  a  moderate  portion  of  his  time  to  lecturing, 
or  superintending  practical  instruction.  On  the 
contrary,  I  think  it  may  be,  and  often  is,  a  benefit 
to  be  obliged  to  take  a  comprehensive  survey  of 
your  subject;  or  to  bring  your  results  to  a  point, 
and  give  them,  as  it  were,  a  tangible  objective 
existence.  The  besetting  sins  of  the  investigator 
are  two  :  the  one  is  the  desire  to  put  aside  a  sub- 
ject, the  general  bearings  of  which  he  has  mastered 
himself,  and  pass  on  to  something  which  has  the 
attraction  of  novelty ;  and  the  other,  the  desire  for 
too  much  perfection,  which  leads  him  to 

' '  Add  and  alter  many  times, 
Till  all  be  ripe  and  rotten  ; " 

to  spend  the  energies  which  should  be  reserved  for 
action  in  whitening  the  decks  and  polishing  the 
guns. 


VIII          UNIVERSITIES  :   ACTUAL   AND   IDEAL        227 

The  obligation  to  produce  results  for  the  in- 
struction of  others,  seems  to  me  to  be  a  more 
effectual  check  on  these  tendencies  than  even  the 
love  of  usefulness  or  the  ambition  for  fame. 

But  supposing  the  Professorial  forces  of  our 
University  to  be  duly  organised,  there  remains  an 
important  question,  relating  to  the  teaching  power, 
to  be  considered.  Is  the  Professorial  system — the 
system,  I  mean,  of  teaching  in  the  lecture-room 
alone,  and  leaving  the  student  to  find  his  own  way 
when  he  is  outside  the  lecture-room — adequate  to 
the  wants  of  learners  ?  In  answering  this  ques- 
tion, I  confine  myself  to  my  own  province,  and  I 
venture  to  reply  for  Physical  Science,  assuredly 
and  undoubtedly,  No.  As  I  have  already  intimated, 
practical  work  in  the  Laboratory  is  absolutely 
indispensable,  and  that  practical  work  must  be 
guided  and  superintended  by  a  sufficient  staff  of 
Demonstrators,  who  are  for  Science  what  Tutors 
are  for  other  branches  of  study.  And  there  must 
be  a  good  supply  of  such  Demonstrators.  I  doubt 
if  the  practical  work  of  more  than  twenty  students 
can  be  properly  superintended  by  one  Demon- 
strator. If  we  take  the  working  day  at  six  hours, 
that  is  less  than  twenty  minutes  apiece — not  a 
very  large  allowance  of  time  for  helping  a  dull 
man,  for  correcting  an  inaccurate  one,  or  even  for 
making  an  intelligent  student  clearly  apprehend 
what  he  is  about.  And,  no  doubt,  the  supplying 
of  a  proper  amount  of  this  tutorial,  practical 


228         UNIVERSITIES  :   ACTUAL   AND   IDEAL         vill 

teaching,  is  a  difficulty  in  the  way  of  giving  proper 
instruction  in  Physical  Science  in  such  Universi- 
ties as  that  of  Aberdeen,  which  are  devoid  of 
endowments ;  and,  unlike  the  English  Universities, 
have  no  moral  claim  on  the  funds  of  richly 
endowed  bodies  to  supply  their  wants. 

Examination — thorough,  searching  examination 
— is  an  indispensable  accompaniment  of  teaching ; 
but  I  am  almost  inclined  to  commit  myself  to  the 
very  heterodox  proposition  that  it  is  a  necessary 
evil.  I  am  a  very  old  Examiner,  having,  for  some 
twenty  years  past,  been  occupied  with  examinations 
on  a  considerable  scale,  of  all  sorts  and  conditions 
of  men,  and  women  too, — from  the  boys  and  girls 
of  elementary  schools  to  the  candidates  for  Honours 
and  Fellowships  in  the  Universities.  I  will  not 
say  that,  in  this  case  as  in  so  many  others,  the 
adage,  that  familiarity  breeds  contempt,  holds 
good ;  but  my  admiration  for  the  existing  system 
of  examination  and  its  products,  does  not  wax 
warmer  as  I  see  more  of  it.  Examination,  like 
fire,  is  a  good  servant,  but  a  bad  master ;  and  there 
seems  to  me  to  be  some  danger  of  its  becoming  our 
master.  I  by  no  means  stand  alone  in  this  opinion. 
Experienced  friends  of  mine  do  not  hesitate  to  say 
that  students  whose  career  they  watch,  appear  to 
them  to  become  deteriorated  by  the  constant  effort 
to  pass  this  or  that  examination,  just  as  we  hear  of 
men's  brains  becoming  affected  by  the  daily  neces- 
sity of  catching  a  train.  They  work  to  pass,  not 


VIII          UNIVERSITIES  :   ACTUAL   AND   IDEAL        229 

to  know ;  and  outraged  Science  takes  her  revenge. 
They  do  pass,  and  they  don't  know.  I  have  passed 
sundry  examinations  in  my  time,  not  without 
credit,  and  I  confess  I  am  ashamed  to  think  how 
very  little  real  knowledge  underlay  the  torrent  of 
stuff  which  I  was  able  to  pour  out  on 'paper.  In 
fact,  that  which  examination,  as  ordinarily  con- 
ducted, tests,  is  simply  a  man's  power  of  work 
under  stimulus,  and  his  capacity  for  rapidly  and 
clearly  producing  that  which,  for  the  time,  he  has 
got  into  his  mind.  Now,  these  faculties  are  by  no 
means  to  be  despised.  They  are  of  great  value  in 
practical  life,  and  are  the  making  of  many  an 
advocate,  and  of  many  a  so-called  statesman.  But 
in  the  pursuit  of  truth,  scientific  or  other,  they 
count  for  very  little,  unless  they  are  supplemented 
by  that  long-continued,  patient  "  intending  of  the 
mind,"  as  Newton  phrased  it,  which  makes  very 
little  show  in  Examinations.  I  imagine  that  an 
Examiner  who  knows  his  students  personally,  must 
not  unfrequently  have  found  himself  in  the  posi- 
tion of  finding  A's  paper  better  than  B's,  though 
his  own  judgment  tells  him,  quite  clearly,  that  B 
is  the  man  who  has  the  larger  share  of  genuine 
capacity. 

Again,  there  is  a  fallacy  about  Examiners.  It 
is  commonly  supposed  that  any  one  who  knows  a 
subject  is  competent  to  teach  it;  and  no  one  seems 
to  doubt  that  any  one  who  knows  a  subject  is 
competent  to  examine  in  it.  I  believe  both  these 


230         UNIVERSITIES:   ACTUAL   AND   IDEAL         viil 

opinions  to  be  serious  mistakes  :  the  latter,  per- 
haps, the  more  serious  of  the  two.  In  the  first 
place,  I  do  not  believe  that  any  one  who  is  not, 
or  has  nob  been,  a  teacher  is  really  qualified  to 
examine  advanced  students.  And  in  the  second 
place,  Examination  is  an  Art,  and  a  difficult  one, 
which  has  to  be  learned  like  all  other  arts. 

Beginners  always  set  too  difficult  questions — • 
partly  because  they  are  afraid  of  being  suspected 
of  ignorance  if  they  set  easy  ones,  and  partly 
from  not  understanding  their  business.  Suppose 
that  you  want  to  test  the  relative  physical 
strength  of  a  score  of  young  men.  You  do  not 
put  a  hundredweight  down  before  them,  and  tell 
each  to  swing  it  round.  If  you  do,  half  of  them 
won't  be  able  to  lift  it  at  all,  and  only  one  or  two 
will  be  able  to  perform  the  task.  You  must  give 
them  half  a  hundredweight,  and  see  how  they 
manoeuvre  that,  if  you  want  to  form  any  estimate 
of  the  muscular  strength  of  each.  So,  a  practised 
Examiner  will  seek  for  information  respecting  the 
mental  vigour  and  training  of  candidates  from  the 
way  in  which  they  deal  with  questions  easy 
enough  to  let  reason,  memory,  and  method  have 
free  play. 

No  doubt,  a  great  deal  is  to  be  done  by  the 
careful  selection  of  Examiners,  and  by  the  copious 
introduction  of  practical  work,  to  remove  the  evils 
inseparable  from  examination ;  but,  under  the 
best  of  circumstances,  I  believe  that  examination 


VIII          UNIVERSITIES:  ACTUAL   AND   IDEAL        231 

will  remain  but  an  imperfect  test  of  knowledge, 
and  a  still  more  imperfect  test  of  capacity,  while 
it  tells  next  to  nothing  about  a  man's  power  as  an 
investigator. 

There  is  much  to  be  said  in  favour  of  restricting 
the  highest  degrees  in  each  Faculty,  to  those  who 
have  shown  evidence  of  such  original  power,  by 
prosecuting  a  research  under  the  eye  of  the 
Professor  in  whose  province  it  lies;  or,  at  any 
rate,  under  conditions  which  shall  afford  satis- 
factory proof  that  the  work  is  theirs.  The  notion 
may  sound  revolutionary,  but  it  is  really  very 
old ;  for,  I  take  it,  that  it  lies  at  the  bottom  of 
that  presentation  of  a  thesis  by  the  candidate  for 
a  doctorate,  which  has  now,  too  often,  become 
little  better  than  a  matter  of  form. 

Thus  far,  I  have  endeavoured  to  lay  before 
you,  in  a  too  brief  and  imperfect  manner,  my 
views  respecting  the  teaching  half — the  Magistri 
and  Regentes — of  the  University  of  the  Future. 
Now  let  me  turn  to  the  learning  half — the 
Scholares. 

If  the  Universities  are  to  be  the  sanctuaries  of 
the  highest  culture  of  the  country,  those  who 
would  enter  that  sanctuary  must  not  come  with 
unwashed  hands.  If  the  good  seed  is  to  yield  its 
hundredfold  harvest,  it  must  not  be  scattered 
amidst  the  stones  of  ignorance,  or  the  tares  of 

undisciplined  indolence  and  wantonness.     On  the 

75 


232         UNIVERSITIES:   ACTUAL  AND  IDEAL         vill 

contrary,  the  soil  must  have  been  carefully 
prepared,  and  the  Professor  should  find  that  the 
operations  of  clod-crushing,  draining,  and  weeding, 
and  even  a  good  deal  of  planting,  have  been  done 
by  the  Schoolmaster. 

That  is  exactly  what  the  Professor  does  not 
find  in  any  University  in  the  three  Kingdoms 
that  I  can  hear  of — the  reason  of  which  state  of 
things  lies  in  the  extremely  faulty  organisation  of 
the  majority  of  secondary  schools.  Students 
come  to  the  Universities  ill-prepared  in  classics 
and  mathematics,  not  at  all  prepared  in  anything 
else ;  and  half  their  time  is  spent  in  learning  that 
which  they  ought  to  have  known  when  they 
came. 

I  sometimes  hear  it  said  that  the  Scottish 
Universities  differ  from  the  English,  in  being  to 
a  much  greater  extent  places  of  comparatively 
elementary  education  for  a  younger  class  of 
students.  But  it  would  seem  doubtful  if  any 
great  difference  of  this  kind  really  exists  ;  for  a 
high  authority,  himself  Head  of  an  English 
College,  has  solemnly  affirmed  that :  "  Elementary 
teaching  of  youths  under  twenty  is  now  the  only 
function  performed  by  the  University  ;  "  and  that 
Colleges  are  "boarding  schools  in  which  the 
elements  of  the  learned  languages  are  taught  to 
youths."  1 

1  Suggestions  for  Academical   Organisation,   with    Especial 
Reference  to  Oxford.     By  the  Rector  of  Lincoln. 


VIII          UNIVERSITIES  :  ACTUAL  AND   IDEAL        233 

This  is  not  the  first  time  that  I  have  quoted 
those  remarkable  assertions.  I  should  like  to 
engrave  them  in  public  view,  for  they  have  not 
been  refuted ;  and  I  am  convinced  that  if  their 
import  is  once  clearly  apprehended,  they  will  play 
no  mean  part  when  the  question  of  University 
reorganisation,  with  a  view  to  practical  measures, 
comes  on  for  discussion.  You  are  not  responsible 
for  this  anomalous  state  of  affairs  now ;  but,  as 
you  pass  into  active  life  and  acquire  the  political 
influence  to  which  your  education  and  your 
position  should  entitle  you,  you  will  become 
responsible  for  it,  unless  each  in  his  sphere  does 
his  best  to  alter  it,  by  insisting  on  the  improve- 
ment of  secondary  schools. 

Your  present  responsibility  is  of  another, 
though  not  less  serious,  kind.  Institutions  do 
not  make  men,  any  more  than  organisation  makes 
life;  and  even  the  ideal  University  we  have  been 
dreaming  about  will  be  but  a  superior  piece  of 
mechanism,  unless  each  student  strive  after  the 
ideal  of  the  Scholar.  And  that  ideal,  it  seems  to 
me,  has  never  been  better  embodied  than  by  the 
great  Poet,  who,  though  lapped  in  luxury,  the 
favourite  of  a  Court,  and  the  idol  of  his  country- 
men, remained  through  all  the  length  of  his 
honoured  years  a  Scholar  in  Art,  in  Science,  and 
in  Life. 

"  Wouldst  shape  a  noble  life  ?    Then  cast 
No  backward  glances  towards  the  past : 


234        UNIVERSITIES:   ACTUAL   AND  IDEAL         vm 

And  though  somewhat  be  lost  and  gone, 

Yet  do  thou  act  as  one  new-born. 

What  each  day  needs,  that  shalt  thou  ask  ; 

Each  day  will  set  its  proper  task. 

Give  others'  work  just  share  of  praise  ; 

Not  of  thine  own  the  merits  raise. 

Beware  no  fellow  man  thou  hate  : 

And  so  in  God's  hands  leave  thy  fate."1 


1  Goethe,  Zahme  Xenicn,  Vierte  Althcilung.  I  should  be 
glad  to  take  credit  for  the  close  and  vigorous  English  version  ; 
but  it  is  my  wife's,  and  r.ot  mine. 


IX 

ADDRESS  ON  UNIVERSITY  EDUCATION1 

[1876] 

THE  actual  work  of  the  University  founded  in 
this  city  by  the  well-considered  munificence  of 
Johns  Hopkins  commences  to-morrow,  and  among 
the  many  marks  of  confidence  and  good-will 
which  have  been  bestowed  upon  me  in  the  United 
States,  there  is  none  which  I  value  more  highly 
than  that  conferred  by  the  authorities  of  the 
University  when  they  invited  me  to  deliver  an 
address  on  such  an  occasion. 

For  the  event  which  has  brought  us  together 
is,  in  many  respects,  unique.  A  vast  property  is 
handed  over  to  an  administrative  body,  hampered 

1  Delivered  at  the  formal  opening  of  the  Johns  Hopkins 
University  at  Baltimore,  U.S.,  September  12.  The  total  amount 
bequeathed  by  Johns  Hopkins  is  more  than  7,000,000  dollars. 
The  sum  of  3,500,000  dollars  is  appropriated  to  a  university,  a 
like  sum  to  a  hospital,  and  the  rest  to  local  institutions  of 
education  and  charity. 


236      ADDRESS   ON  UNIVERSITY   EDUCATION          ix 

by  no  conditions  save  these  : — That  the  principal 
shall  not  be  employed  in  building :  that  the  funds 
•  shall  be  appropriated,  in  equal  proportions,  to  the 
promotion  of  natural  knowledge  and  to  the 
alleviation  of  the  bodily  sufferings  of  mankind ; 
and,  finally,  that  neither  political  nor  ecclesias- 
tical sectarianism  shall  be  permitted  to  disturb 
the  impartial  distribution  of  the  testator's  bene- 
factions. 

In  my  experience  of  life  a  truth  which  sounds 
very  much  like  a  paradox  has^often  asserted  itself: 
namely,  that  a  man's  worst  difficulties  begin  when 
he  is  able  to  do  as  he  likes.  So  long  as  a  man 
is  struggling  with  obstacles  he  has  an  excuse  for 
failure  or  shortcoming ;  but  when  fortune  removes 
them  all  and  gives  him  the  power  of  doing  as 
he  thinks  best,  then  comes  the  time  of  trial. 
There  is  but  one  right,  and  the  possibilities  of 
wrong  are  infinite.  I  doubt  not  that  the  trustees 
of  the  Johns  Hopkins  University  felt  the  full 
force  of  this  truth  when  they  entered  on  the 
administration  of  their  trust  a  year  and  a  half 
ago;  and  I  can  but  admire  the  activity  and 
resolution  which  have  enabled  them,  aided  by 
the  able  president  whom  they  have  selected,  to 
lay  down  the  great  outlines  of  their  plan,  and 
carry  it  thus  far  into  execution.  It  is  impossible 
to  study  that  plan  without  perceiving  that  great 
care,  forethought,  and  sagacity,  have  been  be- 
stowed upon  it,  arid  that  it  demands  the  most 


IX          ADDRESS   ON   UNIVERSITY  EDUCATION      237 

respectful  consideration.  I  have  been  endeavour- 
ing to  ascertain  how  far  the  principles  which 
underlie  it  are  in  accordance  with  those  which 
have  been  established  in  my  own  mind  by  much 
and  long-continued  thought  upon  educational 
questions.  Permit  me  to  place  before  you  the 
result  of  my  reflections. 

Under  one  aspect  a  university  is  a  particular 
kind  of  educational  institution,  and  the  views 
which  we  may  take  of  the  proper  nature  of  a 
university  are  corollaries  from  those  which  we 
hold  respecting  education  in  general.  I  think  it 
must  be  admitted  that  the  school  should  prepare 
for  the  university,  and  that  the  university  should 
crown  the  -edifice,  the  foundations  of  which  are 
laid  in  the  school.  University  education  should 
not  be  something  distinct  from  elementary  edu- 
cation, but  should  be  the  natural  outgrowth  and 
development  of  the  latter.  Now  I  have  a  very 
clear  conviction  as  to  what  elementary  education 
ought  to  be  ;  what  it  really  may  be,  when  properly 
organised ;  and  what  I  think  it  will  be,  before 
many  years  have  passed  over  our  heads,  in  Eng- 
land and  in  America.  Such  education  should 
enable  an  average  boy  of  fifteen  or  sixteen  to 
read  and  write  his  own  language  with  ease  and 
accuracy,  and  with  a  sense  of  literary  excellence 
derived  from  the  study  of  our  classic  writers : 
to  have  a  general  acquaintance  with  the  history 
of  his  own  country  and  with  the  great  laws  of 


238      ADDEESS   ON   UNIVERSITY   EDUCATION          is 

social  existence ;  to  have  acquired  the  rudiments 
of  the  physical  and  psychological  sciences,  and 
a  fair  knowledge  of  elementary  arithmetic  and 
geometry.  He  should  have  obtained  an  acquaint- 
ance with  logic  rather  by  example  than  by  precept ; 
while  the  acquirement  of  the  elements  of  music 
and  drawing  should  have  been  pleasure  rather 
than  work. 

It  may  sound  strange  to  many  ears  if  I  venture 
to  maintain  the  proposition  that  a  young  person, 
educated  thus  far,  has  had  a  liberal,  though  per- 
haps not  a  fall,  education.  But  it  seems  to  me 
that  such  training  as  that  to  which  I  have  re- 
ferred may  be  termed  liberal,  in  both  the  senses  in 
which  that  word  is  employed,  with  perfect  accuracy. 
In  the  first  place,  it  is  liberal  in  breadth.  It 
extends  over  the  whole  ground  of  things  to  be 
known  and  of  faculties  to  be  trained,  and  it  gives 
equal  importance  to  the  two  great  sides  of  human 
activity — art  and  science.  In  the  second  place, 
it  is  liberal  in  the  sense  of  being  an  education 
fitted  for  free  men  ;  for  men  to  whom  every  career 
is  open,  and  from  whom  their  country  may  demand 
that  they  should  be  fitted  to  perform  the  duties 
of  any  career.  I  cannot  too  strongly  impress 
upon  you  the  fact  that,  with  such  a  primary  edu- 
cation as  this,  and  with  no  more  than  is  to  be 
obtained  by  building  strictly  upon  its  lines,  a  man 
of  ability  may  become  a  great  writer  or  speaker, 
a  statesman,  .a  lawyer,  a  man  of  science,  painter, 


IX          ADDRESS   ON   UNIVERSITY   EDUCATION      239 

sculptor,  architect,  or  musician.  That  even 
development  of  all  a  man's  faculties,  which  is 
what  properly  constitutes  culture,  may  be  effected 
by  such  an  education,  while  it  opens  the  way 
for  the  indefinite  strengthening  of  any  special 
capabilities  with  which  he  may  be  gifted. 

In  a  country  like  this,  where  most  men  have 
to  carve  out  their  own  fortunes  and  devote  them- 
selves early  to  the  practical  affairs  of  life,  com- 
paratively few  can  hope  to  pursue  their  studies 
up  to,  still  less  beyond,  the  age  of  manhood.  But 
it  is  of  vital  importance  to  the  welfare  of  the 
community  that  those  who  are  relieved  from  the 
need  of  making  a  livelihood,  and  still  more,  those 
who  are  stirred  by  the  divine  impulses  of  intellectual 
thirst  or  artistic  genius,  should  be  enabled  to 
devote  themselves  to  the  higher  service  of  their 
kind,  as  centres  of  intelligence,  interpreters  of 
Nature,  or  creators  of  new  forms  of  beauty.  And 
it  is  the  function  of  a  university  to  furnish  such 
men  with  the  means  of  becoming  that  which  it  is 
their  privilege  and  duty  to  be.  To  this  end 
the  university  need  cover  no  ground  foreign  to 
that  occupied  by  the  elementary  school.  Indeed 
it  cannot ;  for  the  elementary  instruction  which 
I  have  referred  to  embraces  all  the  kinds  of  real 
knowledge  and  mental  activity  possible  to  man. 
The  university  can  add  no  new  departments  of 
knowledge,  can  offer  no  new  fields  of  mental 
activity;  but  what  it  can  do  is  to  intensify  and 


240      ADDRESS   ON   UNIVERSITY  EDUCATION          ix 

specialise  the  instruction  in  each  department. 
Thus  literature  and  philology,  represented  in  the 
elementary  school  by  English  alone,  in  the  uni- 
versity will  extend  over  the  ancient  and  modern 
languages.  History,  which,  like  charity,  best 
begins  at  home,  but,  like  charity,  should  not  end 
there,  will  ramify  into  anthropology,  archaeology, 
political  history,  and  geography,  with  the  history 
of  the  growth  of  the  human  mind  and  of  its  pro- 
ducts in  the  shape  of  philosophy,  science,  and  art. 
And  the  university  will  present  to  the  student 
libraries,  museums  of  antiquities,  collections  of 
coins,  and  the  like,  which  will  efficiently  subserve 
these  studies.  Instruction  in  the  elements  of 
social  economy,  a  most  essential,  but  hitherto 
sadly-neglected  part  of  elementary  education,  will 
develop  in  the  university  into  political  economy, 
sociology,  and  law.  Physical  science  will  have 
its  great  divisions  of  physical  geography,  with 
geology  and  astronomy  ;  physics ;  chemistry  and 
biology ;  represented  not  merely  by  professors  and 
their  lectures,  but  by  laboratories,  in  which  the 
students,  under  guidance  of  demonstrators,  will 
work  out  facts  for  themselves  and  come  into  that 
direct  contact  with  reality  which  constitutes  the 
fundamental  distinction  of  scientific  education. 
Mathematics  will  soar  into  its  highest  regions; 
while  the  high  peaks  of  philosophy  may  be  scaled 
by  those  whose  aptitude  for  abstract  thought  has 
been  awakened  by  elementary  logic.  Finally, 


IX          ADDRESS   ON   UNIVERSITY   EDUCATION      241 

schools  of  pictorial  and  plastic  art,  of  architecture, 
and  of  music,  will  offer  a  thorough  discipline 
in  the  principles  and  practice  of  art  to  those  in 
whom  lies  nascent  the  rare  faculty  of  aesthetic 
representation,  or  the  still  rarer  powers  of  creative 
genius. 

The  primary  school  and  the  university  are 
the  alpha  and  omega  of  education.  Whether 
institutions  intermediate  between  these  (so- 
called  secondary  schools)  should  exist,  appears 
to  me  to  be  a  question  of  practical  con- 
venience. If  such  schools  are  established,  the 
important  thing  is  that  they  should  be  true  in- 
termediaries between  the  primary  school  and  the 
university,  keeping  on  the  wide  track  of  general 
culture,  and  not  sacrificing  one  branch  of  know- 
ledge for  another. 

Such  appear  to  me  to  be  the  broad  outlines  of  the 
relations  which  the  university,  regarded  as  a  place 
of  education,  ought  to  bear  to  the  school,  but  a 
number  of  points  of  detail  require  some  considera- 
tion, however  briefly  and  imperfectly  I  can  deal 
with  them.  In  the  first  place,  there  is  the  import- 
ant question  of  the  limitations  which  should  be 
fixed  to  the  entrance  into  the  university  ;  or,  what 
qualifications  should  be  required  of  those  who 
propose  to  take  advantage  of  the  higher  training 
offered  by  the  university.  On  the  one  hand,  it 
is  obviously  desirable  that  the  time  and  oppor- 
tunities of  the  university  should  not  be  wasted 


242      ADDRESS   ON   UNIVERSITY   EDUCATION         is 

in  conferring  such  elementary  instruction  as  can 
be  obtained  elsewhere;  while,  on  the  other  hand, 
it  is  no  less  desirable  that  the  higher  instruction 
of  the  university  should  be  made  accessible  to 
every  one  who  can  take  advantage  of  it,  although 
he  may  not  have  been  able  to  go  through  any 
very  extended  course  of  education.  My  own 
feeling  is  distinctly  against  any  absolute  and  defined 
preliminary  examination,  the  passing  of  which  shall 
be  an  essential  condition  of  admission  to  the 
university.  I  would  admit  to  the  university  any  one 
who  could  be  reasonably  expected  to  profit  by  the 
instruction  offered  to  him ;  and  I  should  be  inclined, 
on  the  whole,  to  test  the  fitness  of  the  student, 
not  by  examination  before  he  enters  the  university, 
but  at  the  end  of  his  first  term  of  study.  If,  on 
examination  in  the  branches  of  knowledge  to  which 
he  has  devoted  himself,  he  show  himself  deficient 
in  industry  or  in  capacity,  it  will  be  best  for  the 
university  and  best  for  himself,  to  prevent  him 
from  pursuing  a  vocation  for  which  he  is  obviously 
unfit.  And  I  hardly  know  of  any  other  method 
than  this  by  which  his  fitness  or  unfitness  can  be 
safely  ascertained,  though  no  doubt  a  good  deal  may 
be  done,  not  by  formal  cut  and  dried  examination, 
but  by  judicious  questioning,  at  the  outset  of  his 
career. 

Another  very  important  and  difficult  practical 
question  is,  whether  a  definite  course  of  study 
shall  be  laid  down  for  those  who  enter  the 


IX         ADDRESS  ON  UNIVERSITY  EDUCATION      243 

university ;  whether  a  curriculum  shall  be  pre- 
scribed ;  or  whether  the  student  shall  be  allowed 
to  range  at  will  among  the  subjects  which  are 
open  to  him.  And  this  question  is  inseparably 
connected  with  another,  namely,  the  conferring  of 
degrees.  It  is  obviously  impossible  that  any 
student  should  pass  through  the  whole  of  the 
series  of  courses  of  instruction  offered  by  a 
university.  If  a  degree  is  to  be  conferred  as  a 
mark  of  proficiency  in  knowledge,  it  must  be 
given  on  the  ground  that  the  candidate  is  pro- 
ficient in  a  certain  fraction  of  those  studies ;  and 
then  will  arise  the  necessity  of  insuring  an  equiva- 
lency of  degrees,  so  that  the  course  by  which  a 
degree  is  obtained  shall  mark  approximately  an 
equal  amount  of  labour  and  of  acquirements,  in 
all  cases.  But  this  equivalency  can  hardly  be 
secured  in  any  other  way  than  by  prescribing  a 
series  of  definite  lines  of  study.  This  is  a  matter 
which  will  require  grave  consideration.  The  im- 
portant points  to  bear  in  mind,  I  think,  are  that 
there  should  not  be  too  many  subjects  in  the 
curriculum,  and  that  the  aim  should  be  the 
attainment  of  thorough  and  sound  knowledge  of 
each. 

One  half  of  the  Johns  Hopkins  bequest  is 
devoted  to  the  establishment  of  a  hospital,  and 
it  was  the  desire  of  the  testator  that  the  univer- 
sity and  the  hospital  should  co-operate  in  the 
promotion  of  medical  education.  The  trustees 


244      ADDRESS  -ON   UNIVERSITY  EDUCATION         ix 

will  unquestionably  take  the  best  advice  that  is 
to  be  had  as  to  the  construction  and  administra- 
tion of  the  hospital.  In  respect  to  the  former 
point,  they  will  doubtless  remember  that  a 
hospital  may  be  so  arranged  as  to  kill  more  than 
it  cures ;  and,  in  regard  to  the  latter,  that  a 
hospital  may  spread  the  spirit  of  pauperism 
among  the  well-to-do,  as  well  as  relieve  the 
sufferings  of  the  destitute.  It  is  not  for  me  to 
speak  on  these  topics — rather  let  me  confine 
myself  to  the  one  matter  on  which  my  experience 
as  a  student  of  medicine,  and  an  examiner  of  long 
standing,  who  has  taken  a  great  interest  in  the 
subject  of  medical  education,  may  entitle  me  to 
a  hearing.  I  mean  the  nature  of  medical  educa- 
tion itself,  and  the  co-operation  of  the  university 
in  its  promotion. 

What  is  the  object  of  medical  education  ?  It 
is  to  enable  the  practitioner,  on  the  one  hand,  to 
prevent  disease  by  his  knowledge  of  hygiene ;  on 
the  other  hand,  to  divine  its  nature,  and  to 
alleviate  or  cure  it,  by  his  knowledge  of  pathology, 
therapeutics,  and  practical  medicine.  That  is  his 
business  in  life,  and  if  he  has  not  a  thorough  and 
practical  knowledge  of  the  conditions  of  health, 
of  the  causes  which  tend  to  the  establishment 
of  disease,  of  the  meaning  of  symptoms,  and  of 
the  uses  of  medicines  and  operative  appliances, 
he  is  incompetent,  even  if  he  were  the  best 
anatomist,  or  physiologist,  or  chemist,  that  ever 


IX         ADDRESS   ON   UNIVERSITY   EDUCATION      245 

took  a  gold  medal  or  won  a  prize  certificate. 
This  is  one  great  truth  respecting  medical  educa- 
tion. Another  is,  that  all  practice  in  medicine  is 
based  upon  theory  of  some  sort  or  other  ;  and 
therefore,  that  it  is  desirable  to  have  such  theory 
in  the  closest  possible  accordance  with  fact.  The 
veriest  empiric  who  gives  a  drug  in  one  case 
because  he  has  seen  it  do  good  in  another  of 
apparently  the  same  "sort,  acts  upon  the  theory 
that  similarity  of  superficial  symptoms  means 
similarity  of  lesions ;  which,  by  the  way,  is  per- 
haps as  wild  an  hypothesis  as  could  be  invented. 
To  understand  the  nature  of  disease  we  must 
understand  health,  and  the  understanding  of  the 
healthy  body  means  the  having  a  knowledge  of 
its  structure  and  of  the  way  in  which  its  manifold 
actions  are  performed,  which  is  what  is  technically 
termed  human  anatomy  and  human  physiology. 
The  physiologist  again  must  needs  possess  an 
acquaintance  with  physics  and  chemistry,  inas- 
much as  physiology  is,  to  a  great  extent,  applied 
physics  and  chemistry.  For  ordinary  purposes  a 
limited  amount  of  such  knowledge  is  all  that  is 
needful;  but  for  the  pursuit  of  the  higher 
branches  of  physiology  no  knowledge  of  these 
branches  of  science  can  be  too  extensive,  or  too 
profound.  Again,  what  we  call  therapeutics, 
which  has  to  do  with  the  action  of  drugs  and 
medicines  on  the  living  organism,  is,  strictly 
speaking,  a  branch  of  experimental  physiology, 


246      ADDRESS   ON   UNIVERSITY  EDUCATION          ix 

and  is  daily  receiving  a  greater  and  greater  ex- 
perimental development. 

The  third  great  fact  which  is  to  be  taken  into 
consideration  in  dealing  with  medical  education, 
is  that  the  practical  necessities  of  life  do  not,  as 
a  rule,  allow  aspirants  to  medical  practice  to  give 
more  than  three,  or  it  may  be  four  years  to  their 
studies.  Let  us  put  it  at  four  years,  and  then 
reflect  that,  in  the  course"  of  this  time,  a  young 
man  fresh  from  school  has  to  acquaint  himself 
with  medicine,  surgery,  obstetrics,  therapeutics, 
pathology,  hygiene,  as  well  as  with  the  anatomy 
and  the  physiology  of  the  human  body ;  and  that 
his  knowledge  should  be  of  such  a  character  that 
it  can  be  relied  upon  in  any  emergency,  and 
always  ready  for  practical  application.  Consider, 
in  addition,  that  the  medical  practitioner  may  be 
called  upon,  at  any  moment,  to  give  evidence  in  a 
court  of  justice  in  a  criminal  case  ;  and  that  it  is 
therefore  well  that  he  should  know  something  of 
the  laws  of  evidence,  and  of  what  we  call  medical 
jurisprudence.  On  a  medical  certificate,  a  man 
may  be  taken  from  his  home  and  from  his  busi- 
ness and  confined  in  a  lunatic  asylum ;  surely, 
therefore,  it  is  desirable  that  the  medical  practi- 
tioner should  have  some  rational  and  clear  con- 
ceptions as  to  the  nature  and  symptoms  of  mental 
disease.  Bearing  in  mind  all  these  requirements 
of  medical  education,  you  will  admit  that  the 
burden  on  the  young  aspirant  for  the  medical 


IX         ADDRESS   ON   UNIVERSITY  EDUCATION      247 

profession  is  somewhat  of  the  heaviest,  and  that 
it  needs  some  care  to  prevent  his  intellectual  back 
from  being  broken. 

Those  who  are  acquainted  with  the  existing 
systems  of  medical  education  will  observe  that, 
long  as  is  the  catalogue  of  studies  which  I  have 
enumerated,  I  have  omitted  to  mention  several 
that  enter  into  the  usual  medical  curriculum  of  the 
present  day.  I  have  said  not  a  word  about  zoology, 
comparative  anatomy,  botany,  or  materia  medica. 
Assuredly  this  is  from  no  light  estimate  of  the 
value  or  importance  of  such  studies  in  themselves. 
It  may  be  taken  for  granted  that  I  should  be  the 
last  person  in  the  world  to  object  to  the  teaching 
of  zoology,  or  comparative  anatomy,  in  themselves ; 
but  I  have  the  strongest  feeling  that,  considering 
the  number  and  the  gravity  of  those  studies  through 
which  a  medical  man  must  pass,  if  he  is  to  be 
competent  to  discharge  the  serious  duties  which 
devolve  upon  him,  subjects  which  lie  so  remote  as 
these  do  from  his  practical  pursuits  should  be 
rigorously  excluded.  The  young  man,  who  has 
enough  to  do  in  order  to  acquire  such  familiarity 
with  the  structure  of  the  human  body  as  will  enable 
him  to  perform  the  operations  of  surgery,  ought 
not,  in  my  judgment,  to  be  occupied  with  investi- 
gations into  the  anatomy  of  crabs  and  starfishes. 
Undoubtedly  the  doctor  should  know  the  common 
poisonous  plants  of  his  own  country  when  he  sees 

them  ;  but  that  knowledge  may  be  obtained  by  ii 
76 


248      ADDRESS   ON   UNIVERSITY   EDUCATION          ix 

few  hours  devoted  to  the  examination  of  specimens 
of  such  plants,  and  the  desirableness  of  such 
knowledge  is  no  justification,  to  my  mind,  for 
spending  three  months  over  the  study  of  systematic 
botany.  Again,  materia  medica,  so  far  as  it  is  a 
knowledge  of  drugs,  is  the  business  of  the  druggist. 
In  all  other  callings  the  necessity  of  the  division  of 
labour  is  fully  recognised,  and  it  is  absurd  to  require 
of  the  medical  man  that  he  should  not  avail  himself 
of  the  special  knowledge  of  those  whose  business 
it  is  to  deal  in  the  drugs  which  he  uses.  It  is  all 
very  well  that  the  physician  should  know  that 
castor  oil  comes  from  a  plant,  and  castoreum  from 
an  animal,  and  how  they  are  to  be  prepared ;  but 
for  all  the  practical  purposes  of  his  profession  that 
knowledge  is  not  of  one  whit  more  value,  has  no 
more  relevancy,  than  the  knowledge  of  how  the 
steel  of  his  scalpel  is  made. 

All  knowledge  is  good.  It  is  impossible  to  say 
that  any  fragment  of  knowledge,  however  insigni- 
ficant or  remote  from  one's  ordinary  pursuits,  may 
not  some  day  be  turned  to  account.  But  in  medical 
education,  above  all  things,  it  is  to  be  recollected 
that,  in  order  to  know  a  little  well,  one  must  be 
Content  to  be  ignorant  of  a  great  deal. 

Let  it  not  be  supposed  that  I  am  proposing  to 
narrow  medical  education,  or,  as  the  cry  is,  to  lower 
the  standard  of  the  profession.  Depend  upon  it 
there  is  only  one  way  of  really  ennobling  any  call- 
ing, and  that  is  to  make  those  who  pursue  it  real 


IX         ADDRESS   ON   UNIVERSITY  EDUCATION      240 

masters  of  their  craft,  men  who  can  truly  do  that 
which  they  profess  to  be  able  to  do,  and  which  they 
are  credited  with  being  able  to  do  by  the  public. 
And  there  is  no  position  so  ignoble  as  that  of 
the  so-called  "  liberally-educated  practitioner," 
who  may  be  able  to  read  Galen  in  the  original; 
who  knows  all  the  plants,  from  the  cedar  of 
Lebanon  to  the  hyssop  upon  the  wall ;  but  who 
finds  himself,  with  the  issues  of  life  and  death 
in  his  hands,  ignorant,  blundering,  and  be- 
wildered, because  of  his  ignorance  of  the  essential 
and  fundamental  truths  upon  which  practice 
must  be  based.  Moreover,  I  venture  to  say,  that 
any  man  who  has  seriously  studied  all  the 
essential  branches  of  medical  knowledge;  who 
has  the  needful  acquaintance  with  the  elements 
of  physical  science ;  who  has  been  brought  by 
medical  jurisprudence  into-  contact  with  law; 
whose  -study  of  insanity  has  taken  him  into  the 
fields  of  psychology;  has  ipso  facto  received  a 
liberal  education. 

Having  lightened  the  medical  curriculum  by 
culling  out  of  it  everything  which  is  unessential, 
we  may  next  consider  whether  something  may  not 
be  done  to  aid  the  medical  student  toward  the 
acquirement  of  real  knowledge  by  modifying  the 
system  of  examination.  In  England,  within  my 
recollection,  it  was  the  practice  to  require  of  the 
medical  student  attendance  on  lectures  upon  the 
most  diverse  topics  during  three  years ;  so  that  it 


250      ADDRESS   ON   UNIVERSITY   EDUCATION          ix 

often  happened  that  he  would  have  to  listen,  in  the 
course  of  a  day,  to  four  or  five  lectures  upon  totally 
different  subjects,  in  addition  to  the  hours  given  to 
dissection  and  to  hospital  practice  :  and  he  was 
required  to  keep  all  the  knowledge  he  could  pick 
up,  in  this  distracting  fashion,  at  examination 
point,  until,  at  the  end  of  three  years,  he  was  set 
down  to  a  table  and  questioned  pell-mell  upon  all 
the  different  matters  with  which  he  had  been 
striving  to  make  acquaintance.  A  worse  system 
and  one  more  calculated  to  obstruct  the  acquisition 
of  sound  knowledge  and  to  give  full  play  to  the 
"  crammer  "  and  the  "  grinder  "  could  hardly  have 
been  devised  by  human  ingenuity.  Of  late  years 
great  reforms  have  taken  place.  Examinations 
have  been  divided  so  as  to  diminish  the  number  of 
subjects  among  which  the  attention  has  to  be  dis- 
tributed. Practical 'examination  has  been  largely 
introduced  ;  but  there  still  remains,  even  under  the 
present  system,  too  much  of  the  old  evil  insepara- 
ble from  the  contemporaneous  pursuit  of  a 
multiplicity  of  diverse  studies. 

Proposals  have  recently  been  made  to  get  rid 
of  general  examinations  altogether,  to  permit  the 
student  to  be  examined  in  each  subject  at  the  end 
of  his  attendance  on  the  class ;  and  then,  in  case  of 
the  result  being  satisfactory,  to  allow  him  to  have 
done  with  it ;  and  I  may  say  that  this  method  has 
been  pursued  for  many  years  in  the  Royal  School 
of  Mines  in  London,  and  has  been  found  to  work 


IX          ADDRESS   ON    UNIVERSITY   EDUCATION      251 

very  well.  It  allows  the  student  to  concentrate 
his  mind  upon  what  he  is  about  for  the  time  being, 
and  then  to  dismiss  it.  Those  who  are  occupied 
in  intellectual  work,  will,  I  think,  agree  with  me 
that  it  is  important,  not  so  much  to  know  a  thin£, 
as  to  have  known  it,  and  known  it  thoroughly. 
If  you  have  once  known  a  thing  in  this  way  it  is 
easy  to  renew  your  knowledge  when  you  have 
forgotten  it ;  and  when  you  begin  to  take  the 
subject  up  again,  it  slides  back  upon  the  familiar 
grooves  with  great  facility. 

Lastly  comes  the  question  as  to  how  the  uni- 
versity may  co-operate  in  advancing  medical 
education.  A  medical  school  is  strictly  a  technical 
school — a  school  in  which  a  practical  profession  is 
taught — while  a  university  ought  to  be  a  place  in 
which  knowledge  is  obtained  without  direct  refer- 
ence to  professional  purposes.  It  is  clear,  there- 
fore, that  a  university  and  its  antecedent,  the 
school,  may  best  co-operate  with  the  medical 
school  by  making  due  provision  for  the  study  of 
those  branches  of  knowledge  which  lie  at  the 
foundation  of  medicine. 

At  present,  young  men  come  to  the  medical 
schools  without  a  conception  of  even  the  elements 
of  physical  science ;  they  learn,  for  the  first  time, 
that  there  are  such  sciences  as  physics,  chemistry, 
and  physiology,  and  are  introduced  to  anatomy  as 
a  new  thing.  It  may  be  safely  said  that,  with  a 
large  proportion  of  medical  students,  much  of  tho 


252      ADDRESS   ON   UNIVERSITY   EDUCATION          IX 

first  session  is  wasted  in  learning  how  to  learn 
— in  familiarising  themselves  with  utterly  strange 
conceptions,  and  in  awakening  their  dormant  and 
wholly  untrained  powers  of  observation  and  of 
manipulation.  It  is  difficult  to  over-estimate  the 
magnitude  of  the  obstacles  which  are  thrown  in 
the  way  of  scientific  training  by  the  existing 
system  of  school  education.  Not  only  are  men 
trained  in  mere  book-work,  ignorant  of  what 
observation  means,  but  the  habit  of  learning  from 
books  alone  begets  a  disgust  of  observation.  The 
book-learned  student  will  rather  trust  to  what  he 
sees  in  a  book  than  to  the  witness  of  his  own 
eyes. 

There  is  not  the  least  reason  why  this  should 
be  so,  and,  in  fact,  when  elementary  education 
becomes  that  which  I  have  assumed  it  ought  to 
be,  this  state  of  things  will  no  longer  exist. 
There  is  not  the  slightest  difficulty  in  giving 
sound  elementary  instruction  in  physics,  in 
chemistry,  and  in  the  elements  of  human  physio- 
logy, in  ordinary  schools.  In  other  words,  there 
is  no  reason  why  the  student  should  not  come  to 
the  medical  school,  provided  with  as  much  know- 
ledge of  these  several  sciences  as  he  ordinarily 
picks  up  in  the  course  of  his  first  year  of  attend- 
ance at  the  medical  school. 

I  am  not  saying  this  without  full  practical 
justification  for  the  statement.  For  the  last 
eighteen  years  we  have  had  in  England  a  system 


IX          ADDRESS   ON    UNIVERSITY   EDUCATION      253 

of  elementary  science  teaching  carried  out  under 
the  auspices  of  the  Science  and  Art  Department, 
by  which  elementary  scientific  instruction  is  made 
readily  accessible  to  the  scholars  of  all  the  ele- 
mentary schools  in  the  country.  Commencing 
with  small  beginnings,  carefully  developed  and 
improved,  that  system  now  brings  up  for  exami- 
nation as  many  as  seven  thousand  scholars  in  the 
subject  of  human  physiology  alone.  I  can  say 
that,  out  of  that  number,  a  large  proportion  have 
acquired  a  fair  amount  of  substantial  knowledge ; 
and  that  no  inconsiderable  percentage  show  as 
good  an  acquaintance  with  human  physiology  as 
used  to  be  exhibited  by  the  average  candidates 
for  medical  degrees  in  the  University  of  London, 
when  I  was  first  an  examiner  there  twenty  years 
ago  ;  and  quite  as  much  knowledge  as  is  possessed 
by  the  ordinary  student  of  medicine  at  the  present 
day.  I  am  justified,  therefore,  in  looking  forward 
to  the  time  when  the  student  who  proposes  to 
devote  himself  to  medicine  will  come,  not  abso- 
lutely raw  and  inexperienced  as  he  is  at  present, 
but  in  a  certain  state  of  preparation  for  further 
study ;  and  I  look  to  the  university  to  help  him 
still  further  forward  in  that  stage  of  preparation, 
through  the  organisation  of  its  biological  depart- 
ment. Here  the  student  will  find  means  of 
acquainting  himself  with  the  phenomena  of  life 
in  their  broadest  acceptation.  He  will  study  not 
botany  and  zoology,  which,  as  I  have  said,  would 


254      ADDRESS   ON   UNIVERSITY  EDUCATION          ix 

take  him  too  far  away  from  his  ultimate  goal; 
but,  by  duly  arranged  instruction,  combined  with 
work  in  the  laboratory  upon  the  leading  types  of 
animal  and  vegetable  life,  he  will  lay  a  broad,  and 
at  the  same  time  solid,  foundation  of  biological 
knowledge ;  he  will  come  to  his  medical  studies 
with  a  comprehension  of  the  great  truths  of 
morphology  and  of  physiology,  with  his  hands 
trained  to  dissect  and  his  eyes  taught  to  see.  I 
have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  such  preparation 
is  worth  a  full  year  added  on  to  the  medical 
curriculum.  In  other  words,  it  will  set  free  that 
much  time  for  attention  to  those  studies  which 
bear  directly  upon  the  student's  most  grave  and 
serious  duties  as  a  medical  practitioner. 

Up  to  this  point  I  have  considered  only  the 
teaching  aspect  of  your  great  foundation,  that 
function  of  the  university  in  virtue  of  which  it 
plays  the  part  of  a  reservoir  of  ascertained  truth, 
so  far  as  our  symbols  can  ever  interpret  nature. 
All  can  learn ;  all  can  drink  of  this  lake.  It  is 
given  to  few  to  add  to  the  store  of  knowledge, 
.  to  strike  new  springs  of  thought,  or  to  shape 
new  forms  of  beauty.  But  so  sure  as  it  is  that 
men  live  not  by  bread,  but  by  ideas,  so  sure  is 
it  that  the  future  of  the  world  lies  in  the  hands 
of  those  who  are  able  to  carry  the  interpretation 
of  nature  a  step  further  than  their  predecessors ; 
so  certain  is  it  that  the  highest  function  of  a 
university  is  to  seek  out  those  men,  cherish  them, 


IX         ADDRESS   ON   UNIVERSITY   EDUCATION      255 

and  give  their  ability  to  serve  their  kind  full 
play. 

I  rejoice  to  observe  that  the  encouragement  of 
research  occupies  so  prominent  a  place  in  your 
official  documents,  and  in  the  wise  and  liberal 
inaugural  address  of  your  president.  This  subject 
of  the  encouragement,  or,  as  it  is  sometimes  called, 
the  endowment  of  research,  has  of  late  years 
greatly  exercised  the  minds  of  men  in  England. 
It  was  one  of  the  main  topics  of  discussion  by 
the  members  of  the  Eoyal  Commission  of  whom 
I  was  one,  and  who  not  long  since  issued  their 
report,  after  five  years'  labour.  Many  seem  to 
think  that  this  question  is  mainly  one  of  money  ; 
that  you  can  go  into  the  market  and  buy  research, 
and  that  supply  will  follow  demand,  as  in  the 
ordinary  course  of  commerce.  This  view  does 
not  commend  itself  to  my  mind.  I  know  of  no 
more  difficult  practical  problem  than  the  discovery 
of  a  method  of  encouraging  and  supporting  the 
original  investigator  without  opening  the  door  to 
nepotism  and  jobbery.  My  own  conviction  is 
admirably  summed  up  in  the  passage  of  your 
president's  address,  "  that  the  best  investigators 
are  usually  those  who  have  also  the  responsibilities 
of  instruction,  gaining  thus  the  incitement  of 
colleagues,  the  encouragement  of  pupils,  and  the 
observation  of  the  public." 

At  the  commencement  of  this  address  I  ventured 
to  assume  that  I  might,  if  I  thought  fit,  criticise 


256      ADDRESS   ON   UNIVERSITY   EDUCATION          IX 

the  arrangements  which  have  been  made  by  the 
board  of  trustees,  but  I  confess  that  I  have  little 
to  do  but  to  applaud  them.  Most  wise  and 
sagacious  seems  to  me  the  determination  not  to 
build  for  the  present.  It  has  been  my  fate  to 
see  great  educational  funds  fossilise  into  mere 
bricks  and  mortar,  in  the  petrifying  springs  of 
architecture,  with  nothing  left  to  work  the  institu- 
tion they  were  intended  to  support.  A  great 
warrior  is  said  to  have  made  a  desert  and  called 
it  peace.  Administrators  of  educational  funds 
have  sometimes  made  a  palace  and  called  it  a 
university.  If  I  may  venture  to  give  advice  in  a 
matter  which  lies  out  of  my  proper  competency, 
I  would  say  that  whenever  you  do  build,  get  an 
honest  bricklayer,  and  make  him  build  you  just 
such  rooms  as  you  really  want,  leaving  ample 
space  for  expansion.  And  a  century  hence,  when 
the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  shares  are  at  one  thousand 
premium,  and  you  have  endowed  all  the  professors 
you  need,  and  built  all  the  laboratories  that  are 
wanted,  and  have  the  best  museum  and  the 
finest  library  that  can  be  imagined ;  then,  if  you 
have  a  few  hundred  thousand  dollars  you  don't 
know  what  to  do  with,  send  for  an  architect  and 
tell  him  to  put  up  a  facade.  If  American  is 
similar  to  English  experience,  any  other  course 
will  probably  lead  you  into  having  some  stately 
structure,  good  for  your  architect's  fame,  but  not 
iu  the  least  what  you  want. 


IX          ADDRESS   ON   UNIVERSITY  EDUCATION      257 

It  appears  to  me  that  what  I  have  ventured  to 
lay  down  as  the  principles  which  should  govern 
the  relations  of  a  university  to  education  in 
general,  are  entirely  in  accordance  with  the 
measures  you  have  adopted.  You  have  set  no 
restrictions  upon  access  to  the  instruction  you 
propose  to  give ;  you  have  provided  that  such 
instruction,  either  as  given  by  the  university  or 
by  associated  institutions,  should  cover  the  field 
of  human  intellectual  activity.  You  have  recog- 
nised the  importance  of  encouraging  research. 
You  propose  to  provide  means  by  which  young 
men,  who  may  be  full  of  zeal  for  a  literary  or 
for  a  scientific  career,  but  who  also  may  have 
mistaken  aspiration  for  inspiration,  may  bring 
their  capacities  to  a  test,  and  give  their  powers 
a  fair  trial.  If  such  a  one  fail,  his  endowment 
terminates,  and  there  is  no  harm  done.  If  he 
succeed,  you  may  give  power  of  flight  to  the 
genius  of  a  Davy  or  a  Faraday,  a  Carlyle  or  a 
Locke,  whose  influence  on  the  future  of  his  fellow- 
men  shall  be  absolutely  incalculable. 

You  have  enunciated  the  principle  that  "  the 
glory  of  the  university  should  rest  upon  the 
character  of  the  teachers  and  scholars,  and  not 
upon  their  numbers  or  buildings  constructed  for 
their  use."  And  I  look  upon  it  as  an  essential 
and  most  important  feature  of  your  plan  that 
the  income  of  the  professors  and  teachers  shall  be 
independent  of  the  number  of  students  whom 


258      ADDRESS   ON   UNIVERSITY   EDUCATION         ix 

they  can  attract.  In  this  way  you  provide  against 
the  danger,  patent  elsewhere,  of  finding  attempts 
at  improvement  obstructed  by  vested  interests; 
and,  in  the  department  of  medical  education 
especially,  you  are  free  of  the  temptation  to  set 
loose  upon  the  world  men  utterly  incompetent  to 
perform  the  serious  and  responsible  duties  of 
their  profession. 

It  is  a  delicate  matter  for  a  stranger  to  the 
practical  working  of  your  institutions,  like  myself, 
to  pretend  to  give  an  opinion  as  to  the  organisation 
of  your  governing  power.  I  can  conceive  nothing 
better  than  that  it  should  remain  as  it  is,  if  you  can 
secure  a  succession  of  wise,  liberal,  honest,  and  con- 
scientious men  to  fill  the  vacancies  that  occur 
among  you.  I  do  not  greatly  believe  in  the  efficacy 
of  any  kind  of  machinery  for  securing  such  a 
result ;  but  I  would  venture  to  suggest  that  the 
exclusive  adoption  of  the  method  of  co-optation  for 
filling  the  vacancies  which  must  occur  in  your 
body,  appears  to  me  to  be  somewhat  like  a  tempt- 
ing of  Providence.  Doubtless  there  are  grave 
practical  objections  to  the  appointment  of  persons 
outside  of  your  body  and  not  directly  interested 
in  the  welfare  of  the  university ;  but  might  it  not 
be  well  if  there  were  an  understanding  that  your 
academic  staff  should  be  officially  represented  on 
the  board,  perhaps  even  the  heads  of  one  or  two 
independent  learned  bodies,  so  that  academic 
opinion  and  the  views  of  the  outside  world  might 


IX         ADDRESS   ON   UNIVERSITY   EDUCATION      259 

have  a  certain  influence  in  that  most  important 
matter,  the  appointment  of  your  professors  ?  I 
throw  out  these  suggestions,  as  I  have  said,  in 
ignorance  of  the  practical  difficulties  that  may  lie 
in  the  way  of  carrying  them  into  effect,  on  the 
general  ground  that  personal  and  local  influences 
are  very  subtle,  and  often  unconscious,  while  the 
future  greatness  and  efficiency  of  the  noble  institu- 
tion which  now  commences  its  work  must  largely 
depend  upon  its  freedom  from  them. 

I  constantly  hear  Americans  speak  of  the  charm 
which  our  old  mother  country  has  for  them,  of  the 
delight  with  which  they  wander  through  the 
streets  of  ancient  towns,  or  climb  the  battlements 
of  mediaeval  strongholds,  the  names  of  which  are 
indissolubly  associated  with  the  great  epochs  of 
that  noble  literature  which  is  our  common  inherit- 
ance ;  or  with  the  blood-stained  steps  of  that  secular 
progress,  by  which  the  descendants  of  the  savage 
Britons  and  of  the  wild  pirates  of  the  North  Sea 
have  become  converted  into  warriors  of  order  and 
champions  of  peaceful  freedom,  exhausting  what 
still  remains  of  the  old  Berserk  spirit  in  subduing 
nature,  and  turning  the  wilderness  into  a  garden. 
But  anticipation  has  no  less  charm  than  retrospect, 
and  to  an  Englishman  landing  upon  your  shores  for 
the  first  time,  travelling  for  hundreds  of  miles 
through  strings  of  great  and  well-ordered  cities, 
seeing  your  enormous  actual,  and  almost  infinite 


260      ADDRESS   ON   UNIVERSITY   EDUCATION         ix 

potential,  wealth  in  all  commodities,  and  in  the 
energy  and  ability  which  turn  wealth  to  account, 
there  is  something  sublime  in  the  vista  of  the 
future.  Do  not  suppose  that  I  am  pandering  to 
what  is  commonly  understood  by  national  pride.  I 
cannot  say  that  I  am  in  the  slightest  degree  im- 
pressed by  your  bigness,  or  your  material  resources, 
as  such.  Size  is  not  grandeur,  and  territory  does 
not  make  a  nation.  The  great  issue,  about  which 
hangs  a  true  sublimity,  and  the  terror  of  over- 
hanging fate,  is  what  are  you  going  to  do  with  all 
these  things  ?  What  is  to  be  the  end  to  which 
these  are  to  be  the  means  ?  You  are  making  a 
novel  experiment  in  politics  on  the  greatest  scale 
which  the  world  has  yet  seen.  Forty  millions  at 
your  first  centenary,  it  is  reasonably  to  be  expected 
that,  at  the  second,  these  states  will  be  occupied 
by  two  hundred  millions  of  English-speaking 
people,  spread  over  an  area  as  large  as  that  of 
Europe,  and  with  climates  and  interests  as  diverse 
as  those  of  Spain  and  Scandinavia,  England  and 
Russia.  You  and  your  descendants  have  to  ascer- 
tain whether  this  great  mass  will  hold  together 
under  the  forms  of  a  republic,  and  the  despotic 
reality  of  universal  suffrage  ;  whether  state  rights 
will  hold  out  against  centralisation,  without  separ- 
ation ;  whether  centralisation  will  get  the  better, 
without  actual  or  disguised  monarchy;  whether 
shifting  corruption  is  better  than  a  permanent 
bureaucracy ;  and  as  population  thickens  in  vour 


IX          ADDRESS   ON   UNIVERSITY   EDUCATION      2G1 

great  cities,  and  the  pressure  of  want  is  felt,  the 
gaunt  spectre  of  pauperism  will  stalk  among  you, 
and  communism  and  socialism  will  claim  to  bo 
heard.  Truly  America  has  a  great  future  before 
her ;  great  in  toil,  in  care,  and  in  responsibility ; 
great  in  true  glory  if  she  be  guided  in  wisdom  and 
righteousness  ;  great  in  shame  if  she  fail.  I  cannot 
understand  why  other  nations  should  envy  you,  or 
be  blind  to  the  fact  that  it  is  for  the  highest 
interest  of  mankind  that  you  should  succeed  ;  but 
the  one  condition  of  success,  your  sole  safeguard, 
is  the  moral  worth  and  intellectual  clearness  of  the 
individual  citizen.  Education  cannot  give  these, 
but  it  may  cherish  them  and  bring  them  to  the 
front  in  whatever  station  of  society  they  are  to  be 
found ;  and  the  universities  ought  to  be,  and  may 
be,  the  fortresses  of  the  higher  life  of  the  nation. 

May  the  university  which  commences  its  practical 
activity  to-morrow  abundantly  fulfil  its  high  pur- 
pose ;  may  its  renown  as  a  seat  of  true  learning,  a 
centre  of  free  inquiry,  a  focus  of  intellectual  light, 
increase  year  by  year,  until  men  wander  hither 
from  all  parts  of  the  earth,  as  of  old  they  sought 
Bologna,  or  Paris,  or  Oxford. 

And  it  is  pleasant  to  me  to  fancy  that,  among 
the  English  students  who  are  drawn  to  you  at  that 
time,  there  may  linger  a  dim  tradition  that  a 
countryman  of  theirs  was  permitted  to  address  you 
as  he  has  done  to-day,  and  to  feel  as  if  your  hopea 
were  his  hopes  and  your  success  his  joy. 


X 

ON  THE  STUDY  OF  BIOLOGY 

[1876] 

IT  is  my  duty  to-night  to  speak  about  the  study 
of  Biology,  and  while  it  may  be  that  there  are 
many  of  my  audience  who  are  quite  familiar  with 
that  study,  yet  as  a  lecturer  of  some  standing, 
it  would,  I  know  by  experience,  be  very  bad 
policy  on  my  part  to  suppose  such  to  be  exten- 
sively the  case.  On  the  contrary,  I  must  imagine 
that  there  are  many  of  you  who  would  like  to 
know  what  Biology  is ;  that  there  are  others  who 
have  that  amount  of  information,  but  would  never- 
theless gladly  hear  why  it  should  be  worth  their 
while  to  study  Biology ;  and  yet  others,  again,  to 
whom  these  two  points  are  clear,  but  who  desire  to 
learn  how  they  had  best  study  it,  and,  finally, 
when  they  had  best  study  it. 

I  shall,  therefore,  address  myself  to  the  endeavour 


X  ON   THE   STUDY   OF   BIOLOGY  263 

to  give  you  some  answer  to  these  four  questions 
— what  Biology  is ;  why  it  should  be  studied ; 
how  it  should  be  studied ;  and  when  it  should  be 
studied. 

In  the  first  place,  in  respect  to  what  Biology 
is,  there  are,  I  believe,  some  persons  who  imagine 
that  the  term  "  Biology  "  is  simply  a  new-fangled 
denomination,  a  neologism  in  short,  for  what  used 
to  be  known  under  the  title  of  "  Natural  History ; " 
but  I  shall  try  to  show  you,  on  the  contrary,  that 
the  word  is  the  expression  of  the  growth  of 
science  during  the  last  200  years,  and  came  into 
existence  half  a  century  ago. 

At  the  revival  of  learning,  knowledge  was 
divided  into  two  kinds — the  knowledge  of  nature 
and  the  knowledge  of  man ;  for  it  was  the  current 
idea  then  (and  a  great  deal  of  that  ancient  con- 
ception still  remains)  that  there  was  a  sort  of 
essential  antithesis,  not  to  say  antagonism,  between 
nature  and  man ;  and  that  the  two  had  not  very 
much  to  do  with  one  another,  except  that  the 
one  was  oftentimes  exceedingly  troublesome  to 
the  other.  Though  it  is  one  of  the  salient  merits 
of  our  great  philosophers  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  that  they  recognised  but  one  scientific 
method,  applicable  alike  to  man  and  to  nature, 
we  find  this  notion  of  the  existence  of  a  broad 
distinction  between  nature  and  man  in  the  writings 
both  of  Bacon  and  of  Hobbes  of  Malmesbury ;  and 
I  have  brought  with  me  that  famous  work  which 
77 


964  ON   THE   STUDY   OF  BIOLOGY  x 

is  now  so  little  known,  greatly  as  it  deserves  to 
be  studied,  "  The  Leviathan,"  in  order  that  I 
may  put  to  you  in  the  wonderfully  terse  and 
clear  language  of  Thomas  Hobbes,  what  was 
his  view  of  the  matter.  He  says  : — 

"  The  register  of  knowledge  of  fact  is  called 
history.  Whereof  there  be  two  sorts,  one  called 
natural  history ;  which  is  the  history  of  such  facts 
or  effects  of  nature  as  have  no  dependence  on 
man's  will ;  such  as  are  the  histories  of  metals, 
plants,  animals,  regions,  and  the  like.  The  other 
is  civil  history;  which  is  the  history  of  the 
voluntary  actions  of  men  in  commonwealths/' 

So  that  all  history  of  fact  was  divided  into 
these  two  great  groups  of  natural  and  of  civil  history. 
The  Royal  Society  was  in  course  of  foundation 
about  the  time  that  Hobbes  was  writing  this 
book,  which  was  published  in  1651  ;  and  that 
Society  was  termed  a  "  Society  for  the  Improve- 
ment of  Natural  Knowledge,"  which  was  then  nearly 
the  same  thing  as  a  "  Society  for  the  Improve- 
ment of  Natural  History."  As  time  went  on, 
and  the  various  branches  of  human  knowledge 
became  more  distinctly  developed  and  separated 
from  one  another,  it  was  found  that  some  were 
much  more  susceptible  of  precise  mathematical 
treatment  than  others.  The  publication  of  the 
"  Principia "  of  Newton,  which  probably  gave  a 
greater  stimulus  to  physical  science  than  any  work 
ever  published  before,  or  which  is  likely  to  be 


X  ON  THE   STUDY  OF  BIOLOGY  265 

published  hereafter,  showed  that  precise  mathe- 
matical methods  were  applicable  to  those  branches 
of  science  such  as  astronomy,  and  what  we  now 
call  physics,  which  occupy  a  very  large  portion  of 
the  domain  of  what  the  older  writers  understood 
by  natural  history.  And  inasmuch  as  the  partly 
deductive  and  partly  experimental  methods  of 
treatment  to  which  Newton  and  others  subjected 
these  branches  of  human  knowledge,  showed 
that  the  phenomena  of  nature  which  belonged 
to  them  were  susceptible  of  explanation,  and 
thereby  came  within  the  reach  of  what  was  called 
"  philosophy "  in  those  days ;  so  much  of  this 
kind  of  knowledge  as  was  not  included  under 
astronomy  came  to  be  spoken  of  as  "  natural  philo- 
sophy "—a  term  which  Bacon  had  employed  in 
a  much  wider  sense.  Time  went  on,  and  yet 
other  branches  of  science  developed  themselves. 
Chemistry  took  a  definite  shape ;  and  since  all  these 
sciences,  such  as  astronomy,  natural  philosophy, 
and  chemistry,  were  susceptible  either  of  mathe- 
matical treatment  or  of  experimental  treatment, 
or  of  both,  a  broad  distinction  was  drawn  between 
the  experimental  branches  of  what  had  previously 
been  called  natural  history  and  the  observational 
branches — those  in  which  experiment  was  (or 
appeared  to  be)  of  doubtful  use,  and  where,  at 
that  time,  mathematical  methods  were  inapplic- 
able. Under  these  circumstances  the  old  name 
of  "  Natural  History  "  stuck  by  the  residuum,  by 


266  ON  THE  STUDY  OF  BIOLOGY  X 

those  phenomena  which  were  not,  at  that  time, 
susceptible  of  mathematical  or  experimental  treat- 
ment ;  that  is  to  say,  those  phenomena  of  nature 
which  come  now  under  the  general  heads  of  physi- 
cal geography,  geology,  mineralogy,  the  history 
of  plants,  and  the  history  of  animals.  It  was  in 
this  sense  that  the  term  was  understood  by  the 
great  writers  of  the  middle  of  the  last  century — 
Buffon  and  Linnaeus — by  Buffon  in  his  great 
work,  the  "  Histoire  Naturelle  Generale,"  and  by 
Linnaeus  in  his  splendid  achievement,  the  "Systema 
Natura3."  The  subjects  they  deal  with  are  spoken 
of  as  "  Natural  History,"  and  they  called  them- 
selves and  were  called  "  Naturalists."  But  you 
will  observe  that  this  was  not  the  original  meaning 
of  these  terms ;  but  that  they  had,  by  this  time, 
acquired  a  signification  widely  different  from  that 
which  they  possessed  primitively. 

The  sense  in  which  "  Natural  History  "  was  used 
at  the  time  I  am  now  speaking  of  has,  to  a 
certain  extent,  endured  to  the  present  day. 
There  are  now  in  existence  in  some  of  our 
'northern  universities,  chairs  of  "  Civil  and 
Natural  History/'  in  which  "  Natural  History"  is 
used  to  indicate  exactly  what  Hobbes  and  Bacon 
meant  by  that  term.  The  unhappy  incumbent  of 
the  chair  of  Natural  History  is,  or  was,  supposed 
to  cover  the  whole  ground  of  geology,  mineralogy, 
and  zoology,  perhaps  even  botany,  in  his  lectures. 

But   as  science  made  the  marvellous  progress 


X  ON   THE   STUDY   OF   BIOLOGY  267 

which  it  did  make  at  the  latter  end  of  the  last 
aru  the  beginning  of  the  present  century,  think- 
ing men  began  to  discern  that  under  this  title 
of  "  Natural  History  "  there  were  included  very 
heterogeneous  constituents — that,  for  example, 
geology  and  mineralogy  were,  in  many  respects, 
widely  different  from  botany  and  zoology ;  that  a 
man  might  obtain  an  extensive  knowledge  of  the 
structure  and  functions  of  plants  and  animals, 
without  having  need  to  enter  upon  the  study  of 
geology  or  mineralogy,  and  vice  versa  ;  and,  further 
as  knowledge  advanced,  it  became  clear  that  there 
was  a  great  analogy,  a  very  close  alliance,  between 
those  two  sciences,  of  botany  and  zoology  which 
deal  with  human  beings,  while  they  are  much 
more  widely  separated  from  all  other  studies.  It 
is  due  to  Buffon  to  remark  that  he  clearly  recog- 
nised this  great  fact.  He  says  :  "  Ces  deux  genres 
d'etres  organises  [les  animaux  et  les  ve'getaux]  ont 
beaucoup  plus  de  proprietes  communes  que  de 
differences  re'elles."  Therefore,  it  is  not  wonder- 
ful that,  at  the  beginning  of  the  present  century, 
in  two  different  countries,  and  so  far  as  I  know, 
without  any  intercommunication,  two  famous  men 
clearly  conceived  the  notion  of  uniting  the  sciences 
which  deal  with  living  matter  into  one  wLole,  and 
of  dealing  with  them  as  one  discipline.  In  fact, 
I  may  say  there  were  three  men  to  whom  this  idea 
occurred  contemporaneously,  although  there  were 
but  two  who  carried  it  into  effect,  and  only  ono 


2G8  ON   THE   STUDY   OF   BIOLOGY  x 

who  worked  it  out  completely.  The  persons  to 
whom  I  refer  were  the  eminent  physiologist 
Bichat,  and  the  great  naturalist  Lamarck,  in 
France  ;  and  a  distinguished  German,  Treviranus. 
Bichat 1  asssumed  the  existence  of  a  special  group 
of  "  physiological  "  sciences.  Lamarck,  in  a  work 
published  in  1801,2  for  the  first  time  made  use  of 
the  name  "  Biologie,"  from  the  two  Greek  words 
which  signify  a  discourse  upon  life  and  living 
things.  About  the  same  time,  it  occurred  to 
Treviranus,  that  all  those  sciences  which  deal 
with  living  matter  are  essentially  and  fundamen- 
tally one,  and  ought  to  be  treated  as  a  whole ; 
and,  in  the  year  1802,  he  published  the  first 
volume  of  what  he  also  called  "  Biologie."  Trevi- 
ranus's  great  merit  lies  in  this,  that  he  worked  out 
his  idea,  and  wrote  the  very  remarkable  book  to 
which  I  refer.  It  consists  of  six  volumes,  and 
occupied  its  author  for  twenty  years — from  1802 
to  1822. 

That  is  the  origin  of  the  term  "  Biology  "  ;  and 
that  is  how  it  has  come  about  that  all  clear 
thinkers  and  lovers  of  consistent  nomenclature 
have  substituted  for  the  old  confusing  name  of 
"  Natural  History,"  which  has  conveyed  so  many 
meanings,  the  term  "  Biology  "  which  denotes  the 
whole  of  the  sciences  which  deal  with  living 

1  See  the  distinction  between  the  "  sciences  physiques"  and 
the  "sciences  physiologiques  "  in  the  Anatomic  Gtntrale,  1801. 
a  Hydrogtologie,  an.  x.  (1801). 


X  ON   THE    STUDY   OF   BIOLOGY  269 

things,  whether  they  be  animals  or  whether  they 
be  plants.  Some  little  time  ago — in  the  course  of 
this  year,  I  think — I  was  favoured  by  a  learned 
classic,  Dr.  Field  of  Norwich,  with  a  disquisition, 
in  which  he  endeavourved  to  prove  that,  from  a 
philological  point  of  view,  neither  Treviranus  nor 
Lamarck  had  any  right  to  coin  this  new  word 
"  Biology  "  for  their  purpose ;  that,  in  fact,  the 
Greek  word  "  Bios  "  had  relation  only  to  human 
life  and  human  affairs,  and  that  a  different  word 
was  employed  by  the  Greeks  when  they  wished  to 
speak  of  the  life  of  animals  and  plants.  So  Dr. 
Field  tells  us  we  are  all  wrong  in  using  the 
term  biology,  and  that  we  ought  to  employ  another; 
only  he  is  not  sure  about  the  propriety  of  that 
which  he  proposes  as  a  substitute.  It  is  a  some- 
what hard  one — "  zootocology."  I  am  sorry  we 
are  wrong,  because  we  are  likely  to  continue  so. 
In  these  matters  we  must  have  some  sort  of 
"  Statute  of  Limitations/'  When  a  name  has  been 
employed  for  half  a  century,  persons  of  authority 1 
have  been  using  it,  and  its  sense  has  become  well 
understood,  I  am  afraid  people  will  go  on  using  it, 
whatever  the  weight  of  philological  objection. 

Now  that  we  have  arrived  at  the  origin  of  this 
word  "  Biology,"  the  next  point  to  consider  is  : 

1  "The  term  Biology,  which  means  exactly  what  we  wish  to 
express,  the  Science  of  Life,  has  often  l>een  used,  and  has  of  late 
become  not  uncommon,  among  good  writers." — "VVhewell, 
Philosophy  of  the  Inductive  Sciences,  vol.  i.  p.  544  (edition  of 
1847). 


270  ON   THE   STUDY   OF   BIOLOGY  x 

What  ground  does  it  cover  ?  I  have  said  that  in 
its  strict  technical  sense,  it  denotes  all  the  pheno- 
mena which  are  exhibited  by  living  things,  as 
distinguished  from  those  which  are  not  living ; 
but  while  that  is  all  very  well,  so  long  as  we 
confine  ourselves  to  the  lower  animals  and  to 
plants,  it  lands  us  in  considerable  difficulties 
when  we  reach  the  higher  forms  of  living  things. 
For  whatever  view  we  may  entertain  about  the 
nature  of  man,  one  thing  is  perfectly  certain, 
that  he  is  a  living  creature.  Hence,  if  our  defi- 
nition is  to  be  interpreted  strictly,  we  must  in- 
clude man  and  all  his  ways  and  works  under  the 
head  of  Biology;  in  which  case,  we  should  find 
that  psychology,  politics,  and  political  economy 
would  be  absorbed  into  the  province  of  Biology. 
In  fact,  civil  history  would  be  merged  in  natural 
history.  In  strict  logic  it  may  be  hard  to  object  to 
this  course,  because  no  one  can  doubt  that  the 
rudiments  and  outlines  of  our  own  mental  pheno- 
mena are  traceable  among  the  lower  animals.  They 
have  their  economy  and  their  polity,  and  if,  as  is 
always  admitted,  the  polity  of  bees  and  the 
commonwealth  of  wolves  fall  within  the  purview 
of  the  biologist  proper,  it  becomes  hard  to  say  why 
we  should  not  include  therein  human  affairs, 
which,  in  so  many  cases,  resemble  those  of  the  bees 
in  zealous  getting,  and  are  not  without  a  certain 
parity  in  the  proceedings  of  the  wolves.  The  real 
fact  is  that  we  biologists  are  a  self-sacrificing  people; 


X  ON   THE   STUDY   OF   BIOLOGY  271 

and  inasmuch  as,  on  a  moderate  estimate,  there 
are  about  a  quarter  of  a  million  different  species 
of  animals  and  plants  to  know  about  already,  we 
feel  that  we  have  more  than  sufficient  territory. 
There  has  been  a  sort  of  practical  convention  by 
which  we  give  up  to  a  different  branch  of  science 
what  Bacon  and  Hobbes  would  have  called  "  Civil 
History."  That  branch  of  science  has  constituted 
itself  under  the  head  of  Sociology.  I  may  use 
phraseology  which,  at  present,  will  be  well  under- 
stood and  say  that  we  have  allowed  that  province 
of  Biology  to  become  autonomous ;  but  I  should 
like  you  to  recollect  that  that  is  a  sacrifice,  and 
that  you  should  not  be  surprised  if  it  occasionally 
happens  that  you  see  a  biologist  apparently 
trespassing  in  the  region  of  philosophy  or  politics ; 
or  meddling  with  human  education  ;  because,  after 
all,  that  is  a  part  of  his  kingdom  which  he  has 
only  voluntarily  forsaken. 

Having  now  defined  the  meaning  of  the  word 
Biology,  and  having  indicated  the  general  scope  of 
Biological  Science,  I  turn  to  my  second  question, 
which  is — Why  should  we  study  Biology  ? 
Possibly  the  time  may  come  when  that  will  seem 
a  very  odd  question.  That  we,  living  creatures, 
should  not  feel  a  certain  amount  of  interest  in 
what  it  is  that  constitutes  our  life  will  eventually, 
under  altered  ideas  of  the  fittest  objects  of  human 
inquiry,  appear  to  be  a  singular  phenomenon  ;  but 
at  present,  judging  by  the  practice  of  teachers  and 


272  ON   THE   STUDY   OF   BIOLOGY  x 

educators,  Biology  would  seem  to  be  a  topic  that 
does  not  concern  us  at  all.  I  propose  to  put 
before  you  a  few  considerations  with  which  I  dare 
say  many  will  be  familiar  already,  but  which  will 
suffice  to  show — not  fully,  because  to  demonstrate 
this  point  fully  would  take  a  great  many  lectures 
— that  there  are  some  very  good  and  substantial 
reasons  why  it  may  be  advisable  that  we  should 
know  something  about  this  branch  of  human 
learning. 

I  myself  entirely  agree  with  another  sentiment 
of  the  philosopher  of  Malmesbury,  "  that  the  scope 
of  all  speculation  is  the  performance  of  some  action 
or  thing  to  be  done,"  and  I  have  not  any  very 
great  respect  for,  or  interest  in,  mere  knowing  as 
such.  I  judge  of  the  value  of  human  pursuits  by 
their  bearing  upon  human  interests  ;  in  other 
words,  by  their  utility  ;  but  I  should  like  that  we 
should  quite  clearly  understand  what  it  is  that 
we  mean  by  this  word  "  utility/'  In  an  English- 
man's mouth  it  generally  means  that  by  which  we 
get  pudding  or  praise,  or  both.  I  have  no  doubt 
that  is  one  meaning  of  the  word  utility,  but  it  by 
no  means  includes  all  I  mean  by  utility.  I  think 
that  knowledge  of  every  kind  is  useful  in  propor- 
tion as  it  tends  to  give  people  right  ideas,  which 
are  essential  to  the  foundation  of  right  practice, 
and  to  remove  wrong  ideas,  which  are  the  no  less 
essential  foundations  and  fertile  mothers  of  every 
description  of  error  in  practice.  And  inasmuch  as, 


X  ON   THE   STUDY   OF   BIOLOGY  273 

whatever  practical  people  may  say,  this  world  is, 
after  all,  absolutely  governed  by  ideas,  and  very 
often  by  the  wildest  and  most  hypothetical  ideas, 
it  is  a  matter  of  the  very  greatest  importance  that 
our  theories  of  things,  and  even  of  things  that 
seem  a  long  way  apart  from  our  daily  lives,  should 
be  as  far  as  possible  true,  and  as  far  as  possible 
removed  from  error.  It  is  not  only  in  the  coarser, 
practical  sense  of  the  word  "  utility,"  but  in  this 
higher  and  broader  sense,  that  I  measure  the 
value  of  the  study  of  biology  by  its  utility ;  and  I 
shall  try  to  point  out  to  you  that  you  will  feel  the 
need  of  some  knowledge  of  biology  at  a  great 
many  turns  of  this  present  nineteenth  century 
life  of  ours.  For  example,  most  of  us  attach  great 
importance  to  the  conception  which  we  entertain 
of  the  position  of  man  in  this  universe  and  his 
relation  to  the  rest  of  nature.  We  have  almost 
all  been  told,  and  most  of  us  hold  by  the  tradition, 
that  man  occupies  an  isolated  and  peculiar  position 
in  nature ;  that  though  he  is  in  the  world  he  is 
not  of  the  world  ;  that  his  relations  to  things 
about  him  are  of  a  remote  character ;  that  his 
origin  is  recent,  his  duration  likely  to  be  short, 
and  that  he  is  the  great  central  figure  round 
which  other  things  in  this  world  revolve.  But 
this  is  not  what  the  biologist  tells  us. 

At  the  present  moment  you  will  be  kind 
enough  to  separate  me  from  them,  because  it  is  in 
no  way  essential  to  my  present  argument  that  I 


274       ON  THE  STUDY  OF  BIOLOGY         s 

should  advocate  their  views.  Don't  suppose  that 
I  am  saying  this  for  the  purpose  of  escaping  the 
responsibility  of  their  beliefs  ;  indeed,  at  other 
times  and  in  other  places,  I  do  not  think  that 
point  has  been  left  doubtful ;  but  I  want  clearly 
to  point  out  to  you  that  for  my  present  argument 
they  may  all  be  wrong ;  and,  nevertheless,  my 
argument  will  hold  good.  The  biologists  tell  us 
that  all  this  is  an  entire  mistake.  They  turn  to 
the  physical  organisation  of  man.  They  examine 
his  whole  structure,  his  bony  frame  and  all  that 
clothes  it.  They  resolve  him  into  the  finest  parti- 
cles into  which  the  microscope  will  enable  them 
to  break  him  up.  They  consider  the  performance 
of  his  various  functions  and  activities,  and  they 
look  at  the  manner  in  which  he  occurs  on  the 
surface  of  the  world.  Then  they  turn  to  other 
animals,  and  taking  the  first  handy  domestic 
animal — say  a  dog — they  profess  to  be  able  to 
demonstrate  that  the  analysis  of  the  dog  leads 
them,  in  gross,  to  precisely  the  same  results  as  the 
analysis  of  the  man  ;  that  they  find  almost  identi- 
cally the  same  bones,  having  the  same  relations ; 
that  they  can  name  the  muscles  of  the  dog 
by  the  names  of  the  muscles  of  the  man,  and 
the  nerves  of  the  dog  by  those  of  the  nerves  of 
the  man,  and  that,  such  structures  and  organs  of 
sense  a,s  we  find  in  the  man  such  also  we  find  in 
the  dog ;  they  analyse  the  brain  and  spinal  cord 
and  they  find  that  the  nomenclature  which  fits, 


X  ON  THE  STUDY  OF  BIOLOGY  275 

the  one  answers  for  the  other.  They  carry  their 
microscopic  inquiries  in  the  case  of  the  dog  as  far 
as  they  can,  and  they  find  that  his  body  is 
resolvable  into  the  same  elements  as  those  of  the 
man.  Moreover,  they  trace  back  the  dog's  and 
the  man's  development,  and  they  find  that,  at  a 
certain  stage  of  their  existence,  the  two  creatures 
are  not  distinguishable- the  one  from  the  other; 
they  find  that  the  dog  and  his  kind  have  a  certain 
distribution  over  the  surface  of  the  world,  com- 
parable in  its  way  to  the  distribution  of  the  human 
species.  What  is  true  of  the  dog  they  tell  us  is 
true  of  all  the  higher  animals ;  and  they  assert 
that  they  can  lay  down  a  common  plan  for  the 
whole  of  these  creatures,  and  regard  the  man  and 
the  dog,  the  horse  and  the  ox  as  minor  modifica- 
tions of  one  great  fundamental  unity.  Moreover, 
the  investigations  of  the  last  three-quarters  of  a 
century  have  proved,  they  tell  us,  that  similar 
inquiries,  carried  out  through  all  the  different  kinds 
of  animals  which  are  met  with  in  nature,  will  lead 
us,  not  in  one  straight  series,  but  by  many  roads,  step 
by  step,  gradation  by  gradation,  from  man,  at  the 
summit,  to  specks  of  animated  jelly  at  the  bottom 
of  the  series.  So  that  the  idea  of  Leibnitz,  and 
of  Bonnet,  that  animals  form  a  great  scale  of 
being,  in  which  there  are  a  series  of  gradations 
from  the  most  complicated  form  to  the  lowest  and 
simplest ;  that  idea,  though  not  exactly  in  the 
form  in  which  it  was  propounded  by  those  philo- 


276       ON  THE  STUDY  OF  BIOLOGY         X 

sophers,  turns  out  to  be  substantially  correct. 
More  than  this,  when  biologists  pursue  their 
investigations  into  the  vegetable  world,  they  find 
that  they  can,  in  the  same  way,  follow  out  the 
structure  of  the  plant,  from  the  most  gigantic  and 
complicated  trees  down  through  a  similar  series 
of  gradations,  until  they  arrive  at  specks  of 
animated  jelly,  which  they  are  puzzled  to  distin- 
guish from  those  specks  which  they  reached  by 
the  animal  road. 

Thus,  biologists  have  arrived  at  the  conclusion 
that  a  fundamental  uniformity  of  structure  per- 
vades the  animal  and  vegetable  worlds,  and  that 
plants  and  animals  differ  from  one  another  simply  as 
diverse  modifications  of  the  same  great  general  plan. 

Again,  they  tell  us  the  same  story  in  regard  to 
the  study  of  function.  They  admit  the  large  and 
important  interval  which,  at  the  present  time, 
separates  the  manifestations  of  the  mental  faculties 
observable  in  the  higher  forms  of  mankind,  and 
even  in  the  lower  forms,  such  as  we  know  them, 
from  those  exhibited  by  other  animals ;  but,  at 
the  same  time,  they  tell  us  that  the  foundations, 
or  rudiments,  of  almost  all  the  faculties  of  man 
are  to  be  met  with  in  the  lower  animals ;  that 
there  is  a  unity  of  mental  faculty  as  well  as  of 
bodily  structure,  and  that,  here  also,  the  difference 
is  a  difference  of  degree  and  not  of  kind.  I  said 
"  almost  all,"  for  a  reason.  Among  the  many  dis- 
tinctions which  have  been  drawn  between  the 


X  ON   THE   STUDY   OF  BIOLOGY  277 

lower  creatures  and  ourselves,  there  is  one  which 
is  hardly  ever  insisted  on,1  but  which  may  be  very 
fitly  spoken  of  in  a  place  so  largely  devoted  to 
Art  as  that  in  which  we  are  assembled.  It  is 
this,  that  while,  among  various  kinds  of  animals, 
it  is  possible  to  discover  traces  of  all  the  other 
faculties  of  man,  especially  the  faculty  of  mimicry, 
yet  that  particular  form  of  mimicry  which  shows 
itself  in  the  imitation  of  form,  either  by  modelling 
or  by  drawing,  is  not  to  be  met  with.  As  far  as  I 
know,  there  is  no  sculpture  or  modelling,  and 
decidedly  no  painting  or  drawing,  of  animal  origin. 
I  mention  the  fact,  in  order  that  such  comfort  may 
be  derived  therefrom  as  artists  may  feel  inclined 
to  take. 

If  what  the  biologists  tell  us  is  true,  it  will  be 
needful  to  get  rid  of  our  erroneous  conceptions  of 
man,  and  of  his  place  in  nature,  and  to  substitute 
right  ones  for  them.  But  it  is  impossible  to  form 
any  judgment  as  to  whether  the  biologists  are 
right  or  wrong,  unless  we  are  able  to  appreciate 
the  nature  of  the  arguments  which  they  have  to 
offer. 

One  would  almost  think  this  to  be  a  self- 
evident  proposition.  I  wonder  what  a  scholar 
would  say  to  the  man  who  should  undertake  to 
criticise  a  difficult  passage  in  a  Greek  play,  but 
who  obviously  had  not  acquainted  himself  with 

1  I  think  that  my  friend,  Professor  Allman,  was  the  first  to 
draw  attention  to  it. 


278  ON   THE   STUDY  OF   BIOLOGY  x 

the  rudiments  of  Greek  grammar.  And  yet,  before 
giving  positive  opinions  about  these  high  ques- 
tions of  Biology,  people  not  only  do  not  seem 
to  think  it  necessary  to  be  acquainted  with 
the  grammar  of  the  subject,  but  they  have  not 
even  mastered  the  alphabet.  You  find  criticism 
and  denunciation  showered  about  by  persons  who 
not  only  have  not  attempted  to  go  through  the 
discipline  necessary  to  enable  them  to  be  judges, 
but  who  have  not  even  reached  that  stage  of  emer- 
gence from  ignorance  in  which  the  knowledge 
that  such  a  discipline  is  necessary  dawns  upon  the 
mind.  I  have  had  to  watch  with  some  atten- 
tion— in  fact  I  have  been  favoured  with  a  good 
deal  of  it  myself — the  sort  of  criticism  with  which 
biologists  and  biological  teachings  are  visited. 
I  am  told  every  now  and  then  that  there  is  a 
"  brilliant  article  " J  in  so-and-so,  in  which  we  are 
all  demolished.  I  used  to  read  these  things  once, 
but  I  am  getting  old  now,  and  I  have  ceased  to 
attend  very  much  to  this  cry  of  "  wolf/'  When 
one  does  read  any  of  these  productions,  what  one 
finds  generally,  on  the  face  of  it  is,  that  the 
brilliant  critic  is  devoid  of  even  the  elements  of 
biological  knowledge,  and  that  his  brilliancy  is  like 

1  Galileo  was  troubled  by  a  sort  of  people  whom  he  called 
"paper  philosophers,"  because  they  fancied  that  the  true  read- 
ing of  nature  was  to  be  detected  by  the  collation  of  texts.  The 
race  is  not  extinct,  but,  as  of  old,  brings  forth  its  "  winds  of 
doctrine  "  by  which  the  weathercock  heads  among  us  are  much 
exercised. 


X  ON   THE   STUDY   OF   BIOLOGY  279 

the  light  given  out  by  the  crackling  of  thorns  under 
a  pot  of  which  Solomon  speaks.  So  far  as  I  re- 
collect, Solomon  makes  use  of  the  image  for 
purposes  of  comparison ;  but  I  will  not  proceed 
further  into  that  matter. 

Two  things  must  be  obvious  :  in  the  first  place, 
that  every  man  who  has  the  interests  of  truth  at 
heart  must  earnestly  desire  that  every  well- 
founded  and  just  criticism  that  can  be  made  should 
be  made;  but  that,  in  the  second  place,  it  is 
essential  to  anybody's  being  able  to  benefit  by 
criticism,  that  the  critic  should  know  what  he  is 
talking  about,  and  be  in  a  position  to  form  a 
mental  image  of  the  facts  symbolised  by  the  words 
he  uses.  If  not,  it  is  as  obvious  in  the  case  of  a 
biological  argument,  as  it  is  in  that  of  a  his- 
torical or  philological  discussion,  that  such  criticism 
is  a  mere  waste  of  time  on  the  part  of  its  author, 
and  wholly  undeserving  of  attention  on  the  part 
of  those  who  are  criticised.  Take  it  then  as  an 
illustration  of  the  importance  of  biological  study, 
that  thereby  alone  are  men  able  to  form  something 
like  a  rational  conception  of  what  constitutes 
valuable  criticism  of  the  teachings  of  biologists.1 

1  Some  critics  do  not  even  take  the  trouble  to  read.  I  have 
recently  been  adjured  with  much  solemnity,  to  state  publicly 
why  I  have  "changed  my  opinion "  as  to  the  value  of  the 
palaeontological  evidence  of  the  occurrence  of  evolution. 

To  this  my  reply  is,  "Why  should  I,  when  that  statement  was 
made  seven  years  ago  ?  An  address  delivered  from  the  Presi- 
dential Chair  of  the  Geological  Society,  in  1870,  may  be  said  to 
78 


280  ON   THE   STUDY  OF  BIOLOGY  X 

Next,  I  may  mention  another  bearing  of  biolo- 
gieal  knowledge — a  more  practical  one  in  the 
ordinary  sense  of  the  word.  Consider  the  theory 
of  infectious  disease.  Surely  that  is  of  interest  to 
all  of  us.  Now  the  theory  of  infectious  disease  is 
rapidly  being  elucidated  by  biological  study.  It  is 
possible  to  produce,  from  among  the  lower  animals, 
examples  of  devastating  diseases  which  spread  in 
the  same  manner  as  our  infectious  disorders,  and 
which  are  certainly  and  unmistakably  caused  by 
living  organisms.  This  fact  renders  it  possible,  at 
any  rate,  that  that  doctrine  of  the  causation  of  in- 
fectious disease  which  is  known  under  the  name  of 
"  the  germ  theory  "  may  be  well-founded  ;  and,  if 
so,  it  must  needs  lead  to  the  most  important 
practical  measures  in  dealing  with  those  terrible 
visitations.  It  may  be  well  that  the  general,  as 
well  as  the  professional,  public  should  have  a 
sufficient  knowledge  of  biological  truths  to  be  able 

be  a  public  document,  inasmuch  as  it  not  only  appeared  in  the 
Journal  of  that  learned  body,  but  was  re-published,  in  1873,  in 
a  volume  of  Critiques  and  Addresses,  to  which  my  name  is 
attached.  Therein  will  be  found  a  pretty  full  statement  of  my 
reasons  for  enunciating  two  propositions:  (1)  that  "when  we 
turn  to  the  higher  Vertebrata,  the  results  of  recent  investiga- 
tions, however  we  may  sift  and  criticise  them,  seem  to  me  to 
leave  a  clear  balance  in  favour  of  the  evolution  of  living  forms 
one  from  another ; "  and  (2)  that  the  case  of  the  horse  is  one 
which  "will  stand  rigorous  critic  ism." 

Thus  I  do  not  see  clearly  in  what  way  I  can  be  said  to  have 
changed  my  opinion,  except  in  the  way  of  intensifying  it,  when 
in  consequence  of  the  accumulation  of  similar  evidence  sinco 
1870,  I  recently  spoke  of  the  denial  of  evolution  as  not  worth 
serious  consideration. 


X  ON  THE   STUDY  OF  BIOLOGY  281 

to  take  a  rational  interest  in  the  discussion  of  such 
problems,  and  to  see,  what  I  think  they  may  hope  to 
see,  that,  to  those  who  possess  a  sufficient  elemen- 
tary knowledge  of  Biology,  they  are  not  all  quite 
open  questions. 

Let  me  mention  another  important  practical 
illustration  of  the  value  of  biological  study.  Within 
the  last  forty  years  the  theory  of  agriculture  has 
been  revolutionised.  The  researches  of  Liebig, 
and  those  of  our  own  Lawes  and  Gilbert,  have 
had  a  bearing  upon  that  branch  of  industry  the 
importance  of  which  cannot  be  over-estimated ;  but 
the  whole  of  these  new  views  have  grown  out  of 
the  better  explanation  of  certain  .processes  which 
go  on  in  plants  ;  and  which,  of  course,  form  a  part 
of  the  subject-matter  of  Biology. 

I  might  go  on  multiplying  these  examples,  but 
I  see  that  the  clock  won't  wait  for  me,  and  I 
must  therefore  pass  to  the  third  question  to  which 
I  referred  : — Granted  that  Biology  is  something 
worth  studying,  what  is  the  best  way  of  studying 
it  ?  Here  I  must  point  out  that,  since  Biology  is 
a  physical  science,  the  method  of  studying  it  must 
needs  be  analogous  to  that  which  is  followed  in 
the  other  physical  sciences.  It  has  now  long  been 
recognised  that,  if  a  man  wishes  to  be  a  chemist, 
it  is  not  only  necessary  that  he  should  read  chemi- 
cal books  and  attend  chemical  lectures,  but  that 
he  should  actually  perform  the  fundamental  experi- 
ments in  the  laboratory  for  himself,  and  thus  learn 


282  ON  THE   STUDY  OF  BIOLOGY  x 

exactly  what  the  words  which  he  finds  in  his  books 
and  hears  from  his  teachers,  mean.  If  he  does 
not  do  so,  he  may  read  till  the  crack  of  doom, 
but  he  will  never  know  much  aboiit  chemistry. 
That  is  what  every  chemist  will  tell  you,  and  the 
physicist  will  do  the  same  for  his  branch  of  science. 
The  great  changes  and  improvements  in  physical 
and  chemical  scientific  education,  which  have  taken 
place  of  late,  have  all  resulted  from  the  combina- 
tion of  practical  teaching  with  the  reading  of  books 
and  with  the  hearing  of  lectures.  The  same  thing 
is  true  in  Biology.  Nobody  will  ever  know  any- 
thing about  Biology  except  in  a  dilettante  "  paper- 
philosopher  "  way,  who  contents  himself  with  read- 
ing books  on  botany,  zoology,  and  the  like  ;  and 
the  reason  of  this  is  simple  and  easy  to  under- 
stand. It  is  that  all  language  is  merely  symbolical 
of  the  things  of  which  it  treats ;  the  more  com- 
plicated the  things,  the  more  bare  is  the  symbol, 
and  the  more  its  verbal  definition  requires  to  be 
supplemented  by  the  information  derived  directly 
from  the  handling,  and  the  seeing,  and  the  touch- 
ing of  the  thing  symbolised : — that  is  really  what 
is  at  the  bottom  of  the  whole  matter.  It  is  plain 
common  sense,  as  all  truth,  in  the  long  run,  is  only 
common  sense  clarified.  If  you  want  a  man  to 
be  a  tea  merchant,  you  don't  tell  him  to  read  books 
about  China  or  about  tea,  but  you  put  him  into 
a  tea-merchant's  office  where  he  has  the  handling, 
the  smelling,  and  the  tasting  of  tea.  Without  the 


X  ON   THE  STUDY  OF  BIOLOGY  283 

sort  of  knowledge  which  can  be  gained  only  in 
this  practical  way,  his  exploits  as  a  tea  merchant 
will  soon  come  to  a  bankrupt  termination.  The 
"  paper-philosophers  "  are  under  the  delusion  that 
physical  science  can  be  mastered  as  literary  ac- 
complishments are  acquired,  but  unfortunately  it 
is  not  so.  You  may  read  any  quantity  of  books, 
and  you  may  be  almost  as  ignorant  as  you  were 
at  starting,  if  you  don't  have,  at  the  back  of  your 
minds,  the  change  for  words  in  definite  images 
which  can  only  be  acquired  through  the  operation 
of  your  observing  faculties  on  the  phenomena  of 
nature. 

It  may  be  said  : — "  That  is  all  very  well,  but 
you  told  us  just  now  that  there  are  probably  some- 
thing like  a  quarter  of  a  million  different  kinds 
of  living  and  extinct  animals  and  plants,  and  a 
human  life  could  not  suffice  for  the  examination 
of  one-fiftieth  part  of  all  these."  That  is  true, 
but  then  comes  the  great  convenience  of  the  way 
things  are  arranged  ;  which  is,  that  although  there 
are  these  immense  numbers  of  different  kinds  of 
living  things  in  existence,  yet  they  are  built  up, 
after  all,  upon  marvellously  few  plans. 

There  are  certainly  more  than  100,000  species  of 
insects,  and  yet  anybody  who  knows  one  insect 
— if  a  properly  chosen  one — will  be  able  to  have 
a  very  fair  conception  of  the  structure  of  the 
whole.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  he  will  know 
that  structure  thoroughly,  or  as  well  as  it  is  desir- 


284  ON   THE   STUDY   OF   BIOLOGY  X 

able  he  should  know  it ;  but  he  will  have  enough 
real  knowledge  to  enable  him  to  understand  what 
he  reads,  to  have  genuine  images  in  his  mind  of 
those  structures  which  become  so  variously  modi- 
fied in  all  the  forms  of  insects  he  has  not  seen. 
In  fact,  there  are  such  things  as  types  of  form 
among  animals  and  vegetables,  and  for  the  pur- 
pose of  getting  a  definite  knowledge  of  what  con- 
stitutes the  leading  modifications  of  animal  and 
plant  life,  it  is  not  needful  to  examine  more  than 
a  comparatively  small  number  of  animals  and 
plants. 

Let  me  teJl  you  what  we  do  in  the  biological 
laboratory  which  is  lodged  in  a  building  adjacent  to 
this.  There  I  lecture  to  a  class  of  students  daily 
for  about  four-and-a-half  months,  and  my  class  have, 
of  course,  their  text-books ;  but  the  essential  part 
of  the  whole  teaching,  and  that  which  I  regard 
as  really  the  most  important  part  of  it,  is  a 
laboratory  for  practical  work,  which  is  simply  a 
room  with  all  the  appliances  needed  for  ordinary 
dissection.  We  have  tables  properly  arranged  in 
regard  to  light,  microscopes,  and  dissecting  instru- 
ments, and  we  work  through  the  structure  of  a 
certain  number  of  animals  and  plants.  As,  for 
example,  among  the  plants,  we  take  a  yeast  plant, 
a  Protococcus,  a  common  mould,  a  Chara,  a  fern, 
and  some  flowering  plant ;  among  animals  we  ex- 
amine such  things  as  an  Amoeba,  a  Vorticella,  and 
a  fresh-water  polype.  We  dissect  a  star-fish,  au 


X  ON   THE   STUDY   OF   BIOLOGY  285 

earth-worm,  a  snail,  a  squid,  and  a  fresh-water 
mussel.  We  examine  a  lobster  and  a  cray-fish, 
and  a  black  beetle.  We  go  on  to  a  common  skate, 
a  cod-fish,  a  frog,  a  tortoise,  a  pigeon,  and  a  rabbit, 
and  that  takes  us  about  all  the  time  we  have  to 
give.  The  purpose  of  this  course  is  not  to  make 
skilled  dissectors,  but  to  give  every  student  a  clear 
and  definite  conception,  by  means  of  sense-images, 
of  the  characteristic  structure  of  each  of  the  lead- 
ing modifications  of  the  animal  kingdom ;  and 
that  is  perfectly  possible,  by  going  no  further  than 
the  length  of  that  list  of  forms  which  I  have 
enumerated.  If  a  man  knows  the  structure  of 
the  animals  I  have  mentioned,  he  has  a  clear  and 
exact,  however  limited^  apprehension  of  the  essen- 
tial features  of  the  organisation  of  all  those  great 
divisions  of  the  animal  and  vegetable  kingdoms 
to  which  the  forms  I  have  mentioned  severally 
belong.  And  it  then  becomes  possible  for  .him 
to  read  with  profit ;  because  every  time  he  meets 
with  the  name  of  a  structure,  he  has  a  definite 
image  in  his  mind  of  what  the  name  means  in 
the  particular  creature  he  is  reading  about,  and 
therefore  the  reading  is  not  mere  reading.  It  is 
not  mere  repetition  of  words ;  but  every  term 
employed  in  the  description,  we  will  say,  of  a  horse, 
or  of  an  elephant,  will  call  up  the  image  of  the 
things  he  had  seen  in  the  rabbit,  and  he  is  able  to 
form  a  distinct  conception  of  that  which  he  has  not 
seen,  as  a  modification  of  that  which  he  has  seen, 


286  ON  THE  STUDY  OF  BIOLOGY  x 

I  find  this  system  to  yield  excellent  results  ;  and 
I  have  no  hesitation  whatever  in  saying,  that  any 
one  who  has  gone  through  such  a  course,  atten- 
tively, is  in  a  better  position  to  form  a  conception 
of  the  great  truths  of  Biology,  especially  of  mor- 
phology (which  is  what  we  chiefly  deal  with),  than 
if  he  had  merely  read  all  the  books  on  that  topic 
put  together. 

The  connection  of  this  discourse  with  the  Loan 
Collection  of  Scientific  Apparatus  arises  out  of  the 
exhibition  in  that  collection  of  certain  aids  to  our 
laboratory  work.  Such  of  you  as  have  visited  that 
very  interesting  collection  may  have  noticed  a  series 
of  diagrams  and  of  preparations  illustrating  the 
structure  of  a  frog.  Those  diagrams  and  prepara- 
tions have  been  made  for  the  use  of  the  students 
in  the  biological  laboratory.  Similar  diagrams  and 
preparations  illustrating  the  structure  of  all  the 
other  forms  of  life  we  examine,  are  either  made  or 
in  course  of  preparation.  Thus  the  student  has 
before  him,  first,  a  picture  of  the  structure  he  ought 
to  see ;  secondly,  the  structure  itself  worked  out ; 
and  if  with  these  aids,  and  such  needful  explana- 
tions and  practical  hints  as  a  demonstrator  can 
supply,  he  cannot  make  out  the  facts  for  himself 
in  the  materials  supplied  to  him,  he  had  better 
take  to  some  other  pursuit  than  that  of  biological 
science. 

I  should   have  been  glad  to  have  said  a  few 
words  about  the  use  of  museums  in  the  study  of 


X  ON  THE   STUDY  OF  BIOLOGY  287 

Biology,  but  I  see  that  my  time  is  becoming 
short,  and  I  have  yet  another  question  to  answer. 
Nevertheless,  I  must,  at  the  risk  of  wearying  you, 
say  a  word  or  two  upon  the  important  subject  of 
museums.  Without  doubt  there  are  no  helps  to 
the  study  of  Biology,  or  rather  to  some  branches 
of  it,  which  are,  or  may  be,  more  important  than 
natural  history  museums;  but,  in  order  to  take 
this  place  in  regard  to  Biology,  they  must  be 
museums  of  the  future.  The  museums  of  the 
present  do  not,  by  any  means,  do  so  much  for  us 
as  they  might  do.  I  do  not  wish  to  particularise, 
but  I  dare  say  many  of  you,  seeking  knowledge,  or 
in  the  laudable  desire  to  employ  a  holiday 
usefully,  have  visited  some  great  natural  history 
museum.  You  have  walked  through  a  quarter 
of  a  mile  of  animals,  more  or  less  well  stuffed, 
with  their  long  names  written  out  underneath 
them ;  and,  unless  your  experience  is  very  differ- 
ent from  that  of  most  people,  the  upshot  of  it  all 
is  that  you  .leave  that  splendid  pile  with  sore  feet, 
a  bad  headache,  and  a  general  idea  that  the 
animal  kingdom  is  a  "  mighty  maze  without  a 
plan."  I  do  not  think  that  a  museum  which 
brings  about  this  result  does  all  that  may  be 
reasonably  expected  from  such  an  institution. 
What  is  needed  in  a  collection  of  natural  history 
is  that  it  should  be  made  as  accessible  and  as  use- 
ful as  possible,  on  the  one  hand  to  the  general 
public,  and  on  the  other  to  scientific  workers. 


288       ON  THE  STUDY  OF  BIOLOGY         X 

That  need  is  not  met  by  constructing  a  sort  of 
happy  hunting-ground  of  miles  of  glass  cases ; 
and,  under  the  pretence  of  exhibiting  everything 
putting  the  maximum  amount  of  obstacle  in  the 
way  of  those  who  wish  properly  to  see  anything. 

What  the  public  want  is  easy  and  unhindered 
access  to  such  a  collection  as  they  can  understand 
and  appreciate ;  and  what  the  men  of  science  want 
is  similar  access  to  the  materials  of  science.  To 
this  end  the  vast  mass  of  objects  of  natural 
history  should  be  divided  into  two  parts — one 
open  to  the  public,  the  other  to  men  of  science, 
every  day.  The  former  division  should  exemplify  all 
the  more  important  and  interesting  forms  of  life. 
Explanatory  tablets  should  be  attached  to  them, 
and  catalogues  containing  clearly- written  popular 
expositions  of  the  general  significance  of  the 
objects  exhibited  should  be  provided.  The  lattei 
should  contain,  packed  into  a  comparatively  small 
space,  in  rooms  adapted  for  working  purposes,  the 
objects  of  purely  scientific  interest.  For  example, 
we  will  say  I  am  an  ornithologist.  I  go  to 
examine  a  collection  of  birds.  It  is  a  positive 
nuisance  to  have  them  stuffed.  It  is  not  only 
sheer  waste,  but  I  have  to  reckon  with  the  ideas 
of  the  bird-stuffer,  while,  if  I  have  the  skin  and 
nobody  has  interfered  with  it,  I  can  form  my  own 
judgment  as  to  what  the  bird  was  like.  For 
ornithological  purposes,  what  is  needed  is  not 
glass  cases  full  of  stuffed  birds  on  perches,  but 


X  ON   THE   STUDY  OF  BIOLOGY  289 

convenient  drawers  into  each  of  which  a  great 
quantity  of  skins  will  go.  They  occupy  no  great 
space  and  do  not  require  any  expenditure  beyond 
their  original  cost.  But  for  the  edification  of  the 
public,  who  want  to  learn  indeed,  but  do  not 
seek  for  minute  and  technical  knowledge,  the  case 
is  different.  What  one  of  the  general  public 
walking  into  a  collection  of  birds  desires  to  see  is 
not  all  the  birds  that  can  be  got  together.  He 
does  not  want  to  compare  a  hundred  species  of 
the  sparrow  tribe  side  by  side ;  but  he  wishes  to 
know  what  a  bird  is,  and  what  are  the  great 
modifications  of  bird  structure,  and  to  be  able  to 
get  at  that  knowledge  easily.  What  will  best 
serve  his  purpose  is  a  comparatively  small 
number  of  birds  carefully  selected,  and  artistically, 
as  well  as  accurately,  set  up ;  with  their  different 
ages,  their  nests,  their  young,  their  eggs,  and 
their  skeletons  side  by  side ;  and  in  accordance 
with  the  admirable  plan  which  is  pursued  in  this 
museum,  a  tablet,  telling  the  spectator  in  legible 
characters  what  they  are  and  what  they  mean. 
For  the  instruction  and  recreation  of  the  public 
such  a  typical  collection  would  be  of  far  greater 
value  than  any  many-acred  imitation  of  Noah's 
ark. 

Lastly  comes  the  question  as  to  when  biological 
study  may  best  be  pursued.  I  do  not  see  any 
valid  reason  why  it  should  not  be  made,  to  a 
certain  extent,  a  part  of  ordinary  school  training. 


290       ON  THE  STUDY  OF  BIOLOGY         x 

I  have  long  advocated  this  view,  and  I  am 
perfectly  certain  that  it  can  be  carried  out  with 
ease,  and  not  only  with  ease,  but  with  very 
considerable  profit  to  those  who  are  taught ;  but 
then  such  instruction  must  be  adapted  to  tho 
minds  and  needs  of  the  scholars.  They  used  to 
have  a  very  odd  way  of  teaching  the  classical 
languages  when  I  was  a  boy.  The  first  task  set 
you  was  to  learn  the  rules  of  the  Latin  grammar 
in  the  Latin  language — that  being  the  language 
you  were  going  to  learn!  I  thought  then  that 
this  was  an  odd  way  of  learning  a  language,  but 
did  not  venture  to  rebel  against  the  judgment  of 
my  superiors.  Now,  perhaps,  I  am  not  so  modest 
as  I  was  then,  and  I  allow  myself  to  think  that  it 
was  a  very  absurd  fashion.  But  it  would  be  no 
less  absurd,  if  we  were  to  set  about  teaching 
Biology  by  putting  into  the  hands  of  boys  a  series 
of  definitions  of  the  classes  and  orders  of  the 
animal  kingdom,  and  making  them  repeat  them 
by  heart.  That  is  so  very  favourite  a  method  of 
teaching,  that  I  sometimes  fancy  the  spirit  of  the 
old  classical  system  has  entered  into  the  new 
scientific  system,  in  which  case  I  would  much 
rather  that  any  pretence  at  scientific  teaching 
were  abolished  altogether.  What  really  has  to  be 
done  is  to  get  into  the  young  mind  some  notion 
of  what  animal  and  vegetable  life  is.  In  this 
matter,  you  have  to  consider  practical  convenience 
as  well  as  other  things.  There  are  difficulties  iu 


X  ON   THE   STUDY   OF   BIOLOGY  291 

the  way  of  a  lot  of  boys  making  messes  with 
slugs  and  snails ;  it  might  not  work  in  practice. 
But  there  is  a  very  convenient  and  handy  animal 
which  everybody  has  at  hand,  and  that  is  himself; 
and  it  is  a  very  easy  and  simple  matter  to  obtain 
common  plants.  Hence  the  general  truths  of 
anatomy  and  physiology  can  be  taught  to  young 
people  in  a  very  real  fashion  by  dealing  with  the 
broad  facts  of  human  structure.  Such  viscera  as 
they  cannot  very  well  examine  in  themselves, 
such  as  hearts,  lungs,  and  livers,  may  be  obtained 
from  the  nearest  butcher's  shop.  In  respect  to 
teaching  something  about  the  biology  of  plants, 
there  is  no  practical  difficulty,  because  almost  any 
of  the  common  plants  will  do,  and  plants  do  not 
make  a  mess — at  least  they  do  not  make  an 
unpleasant  mess;  so  that,  in  my  judgment,  the 
best  form  of  Biology  for  teaching  to  very  young 
people  is  elementary  human  physiology  on  the 
one  hand,  and  the  elements  of  botany  on  the 
other ;  beyond  that  I  do  not  think  it  will  be 
feasible  to  advance  for  some  time  to  come.  But 
then  I  see  no  reason,  why,  in  secondary  schools, 
and  in  the  Science  Classes  which  are  under  the 
control  of  the  Science  and  Art  Department — 
and  which  I  may  say,  in  passing,  have  in  my 
judgment,  done  so  very  much  for  the  diffusion  of 
a  knowledge  of  science  over  the  country — we 
should  not  hope  to  see  instruction  in  the  elements 
of  Biology  carried  out,  not  perhaps  to  the  same 


292  ON   THE   STUDY  OF  BIOLOGY  x 

extent,  but  still  upon  somewhat  the  same 
principle  as  here.  There  is  no  difficulty,  when 
you  have  to  deal  with  students  of  the  ages  of 
fifteen  or  sixteen,  in  practising  a  little  dissection 
and  in  getting  a  notion  of,  at  any  rate,  the  four 
or  five  great  modifications  of  the  animal  form ; 
and  the  like  is  true  in  regard  to  the  higher 
anatomy  of  plants. 

While,  lastly,  to  all  those  who  are  studying 
biological  science  with  a  view  to  their  own  edifi- 
cation merely,  or  with  the  intention  of  becoming 
zoologists  or  botanists ;  to  all  those*  who  intend  to 
pursue  physiology — and  especially  to  those  who 
propose  to  employ  the  working  years  of  their 
lives  in  the  practice  of  medicine — I  say  that 
there  is  no  training  so  fitted,  or  which  may  be  of 
such  important  service  to  them,  as  the  discipline 
in  practical  biological  work  which  I  have  sketched 
out  as  being  pursued  in  the  laboratory  hard  by. 

I  may  add  that,  beyond  all  these  different 
classes  of  persons  who  may  profit  by  the  study  of 
Biology,  there  is  yet  one  other.  I  remember,  a 
number  of  years  ago,  that  a  gentleman  who  was  a 
vehement  opponent  of  Mr.  Darwin's  views  and 
had  written  some  terrible  articles  against  them, 
applied  to  me  to  know  what  was  the  best  way  in 
which  he  could  acquaint  himself  with  the 
strongest  arguments  in  favour  of  evolution.  I 
wrote  back,  in  all  good  faith  and  simplicity, 


X  ON   THE   STUDY   OF   BIOLOGY  293 

recommending  him  to  go  through  a  course  of 
comparative  anatomy  and  physiology,  and  then  to 
study  development.  I  am  sorry  to  say  he  was 
very  much  displeased,  as  people  often  are  with 
good  advice.  Notwithstanding  this  discouraging 
result,  I  venture,  as  a  parting  word,  to  repeat  the 
suggestion,  and  to  say  to  all  the  more  or  less 
acute  lay  and  clerical  "  paper-philosophers " l 
who  venture  into  the  regions  of  biological 
controversy — Get  a  little  sound,  thorough,  prac- 
tical, elementary  instruction  in  biology. 

1  Writers  of  this  stamp  are  fond  of  talking  about  the  Baconian 
method.  I  beg  them  therefore  to  lay  to  heart  these  two  weighty 
sayings  of  the  herald  of  ^Modern  Science  : — 

"  Syllogismus  ex  propositionibus  constat,  propositiones  ex 
verbis,  verba  notionum  tesserae  sunt.  Itaque  si  notiones  ipsse 
(id  quod  basis  rci  est]  confusae  sint  et  temere  a  rebus  abstracts, 
nihil  in  iis  quae  superstruuntur  est  firmitudinis. " — Novum 
Organony  ii.  14. 

"  Huic  autem  vanitati  nonnulli  ex  modernis  summa  'evitato 
ita  indulserunt,  ut  in  primo  capitulo  Geneseos  et  in  libro  -Tob  et 
aliis  scrip turis  sacris,  philosophiam  naturalem  fund  are  couati 
Rint ;  inter  vivos  qu&rentes  morhia." — Ibid.  66. 


XI 

ON  ELEMENTARY  INSTRUCTION  IN 
PHYSIOLOGY 

[1877] 

THE  chief  ground  upon  which  I  venture  to 
recommend  that  the  teaching  of  elementary 
physiology  should  form  an  essential  part  of  any 
organised  course  of  instruction  in  matters  pertaining 
to  domestic  economy,  is,  that  a  knowledge  of  even 
the  elements  of  this  subject  supplies  those  con- 
ceptions of  the  constitution  and  mode  of  action 
of  the  living  body,  and  of  the  nature  of  health 
and  disease,  which  prepare  the  mind  to  receive 
instruction  from  sanitary  science. 

It  is,  I  think,  eminently  desirable  that  the 
hygienist  and  the  physician  should  find  something 
in  the  public  mind  to  which  they  can  appeal ;  some 
little  stock  of  universally  acknowledged  truths, 
which  may  serve  as  a  foundation  for  their  warnings, 
and  predispose  towards  an  intelligent  obedience  to 
their  recommendations. 


XI  INSTRUCTION   IN   PHYSIOLOGY  295 

Listening  to  ordinary  talk  about  health,  disease, 
and  death,  one  is  often  led  to  entertain  a  doubt 
whether  the  speakers  believe  that  the  course  of 
natural  causation  runs  as  smoothly  in  the  human 
body  as  elsewhere.  Indications  are  too  often  obvious 
of  a  strong,  though  perhaps  an  una vowed  and  half 
unconscious,  under-current  of  opinion  that  the 
phenomena  of  life  are  not  only  widely  different, 
in  their  superficial  characters  and  in  their  practical 
importance,  from  other  natural  events,  but  that 
they  do  not  follow  in  that  definite  order  which 
characterises  the  succession  of  all  other  occur- 
rences, and  the  statement  of  which  we  call  a  law  of 
nature. 

Hence,  I  think,  arises  the  want  of  heartiness  of 
belief  in  the  value  of  knowledge  respecting  the 
laws  of  health  and  disease,  and  of  the  foresight 
and  care  to  which  knowledge  is  the  essential  pre- 
liminary, which  is  so  often  noticeable  ;  and  a  cor- 
responding laxity  and  carelessness  in  practice,  the 
results  of  which  are  too  frequently  lamentable. 

It  is  said  that  among  the  many  religious  sects 
of  Russia,  there  is  one  which  holds  that  all  disease 
is  brought  about  by  the  direct  and  special  inter- 
ference of  the  Deity,  and  which,  therefore,  looks 
with  repugnance  upon  both  preventive  and  curative 
measures  as  alike  blasphemous  interferences  with 
the  will  of  God.  Among  ourselves,  the  "  Peculiar 
People  "  are,  I  believe,  the  only  persons  who  hold 
the  like  doctrine  in  its  integrity,  and  carry  it  out 
79 


296  INSTRUCTION   IN   PHYSIOLOGY  xi 

with  logical  rigour.  But  many  of  us  are  old 
enough  to  recollect  that  the  administration  of 
chloroform  in  assuagement  of  the  pangs  of  child- 
birth was,  at  its  introduction,  strenuously  resisted 
upon  similar  grounds. 

I  am  not  sure  that  the  feeling,  of  which  the 
doctrine  to  which  I  have  referred  is  the  full 
expression,  does  not  lie  at  the  bottom  of  the 
minds  of  a  great  many  peop]e  who  yet  would 
vigorously  object  to  give  a  verbal  assent  to  the 
doctrine  itself.  However  this  may  be,  the  main 
point  is  that  sufficient  knowledge  has  now  been 
acquired  of  vital  phenomena,  to  justify  the 
assertion,  that  the  notion,  that  there  is  anything 
exceptional  about  these  phenomena,  receives  not  a 
particle  of  support  from  any  known  fact.  On  the 
contrary,  there  is  a  vast  and  an  increasing  mass  of 
evidence  that  birth  and  death,  health  and  disease, 
are  as  much  parts  of  the  ordinary  stream  of  events 
as  the  rising  and  setting  of  the  sun,  or  the  changes 
of  the  moon  ;  and  that  the  living  body  is  a 
mechanism,  the  proper  working  of  which  we  term 
health  ;  its  disturbance,  disease ;  its  stoppage, 
death.  The  activity  of  this  mechanism  is  de- 
pendent upon  many  and  complicated  conditions, 
some  of  which  are  hopelessly  beyond  our  control, 
while  others  are  readily  accessible,  and  are  capable 
of  being  indefinitely  modified  by  our  own  actions. 
The  business  of  the  hygienist  and  of  the  physician 
is  to  know  the  range  of  these  modifiable  conditions, 


XI  INSTRUCTION   IN   PHYSIOLOGY  297 

and  how  to  influence  them  towards  the  main- 
tenance of  health  and  the  prolongation  of  life; 
the  business  of  the  general  public  is  to  give  an 
intelligent  assent,  and  a  ready  obedience  based 
upon  that  assent,  to  the  rules  laid  down  for  their 
guidance  by  such  experts.  But  an  intelligent 
assent  is  an  assent  based  upon  knowledge,  and  the 
knowledge  which  is  here  in  question  means  an 
acquaintance  with  the  elements  of  physiology. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  acquire  such  knowledge. 
What  is  true,  to  a  certain  extent,  of  all  the  physical 
sciences,  is  eminently  characteristic  of  physiology 
— the  difficulty  of  the  subject  begins  beyond  the 
stage  of  elementary  knowledge,  and  increases  with 
every  stage  of  progress.  While  the  most  highly 
trained  and  the  best  furnished  intellect  may  find 
all  its  resources  insufficient,  when  it  strives  to 
reach  the  heights  and  penetrate  into  the  depths 
of  the  problems  of  physiology,  the  elementary 
and  fundamental  truths  can  be  made  clear  to  a 
child. 

No  one  can  have  any  difficulty  in  comprehend- 
ing the  mechanism  of  circulation  or  respiration ; 
or  the  general  mode  of  operation  of  the  organ  of 
vision ;  though  the  unravelling  of  all  the  minutiae 
of  these  processes,  may,  for  the  present,  baffle  the 
conjoined  attacks  of  the  most  accomplished  physi- 
cists, chemists,  and  mathematicians.  To  know 
the  anatomy  of  the  human  body,  with  even  an 
approximation  to  thoroughness,  is  the  work  of  a 


298  INSTRUCTION  IN  PHYSIOLOGY  xi 

life ;  but  as  much  as  is  needed  for  a  sound  com- 
prehension of  elementary  physiological  truths, 
may  be  learned  in  a  week. 

A  knowledge  of  the  elements  of  physiology  is 
not  only  easy  of  acquirement,  but  it  may  be  made 
a  real  and  practical  acquaintance  with  the  facts, 
as  far  as  it  goes.  The  subject  of  study  is  always 
at  hand,  in  one's  self.  The  principal  constituents 
of  the  skeleton,  and  the  changes  of  form  of  con- 
tracting muscles,  may  be  felt  through  one's  own 
skin.  The  beating  of  one's  heart,  and  its  connec- 
tion with  the  pulse,  may  be  noted  ;  the  influence 
of  the  valves  of  one's  own  veins  may  be  shown ; 
the  movements  of  respiration  may  be  observed ; 
while  the  wonderful  phenomena  of  sensation 
afford  an  endless  field  for  curious  and  interesting 
self-study.  The  prick  of  a  needle  will  yield,  in  a 
drop  of  one's  own  blood,  material  for  microscopic 
observation  of  phenomena  which  lie  at  the  found- 
ation of  all  biological  conceptions;  and  a  cold, 
with  its  concomitant  coughing  and  sneezing,  may 
prove  the  sweet  uses  of  adversity  by  helping  one 
to  a  clear  conception  of  what  is  meant  by  "  reflex 
action." 

Of  course  there  is  a  limit  to  this  physiological 
self-examination.  But  there  is  so  close  a  solidar- 
ity between  ourselves  and  our  poor  relations  of 
the  animal  world,  that  our  inaccessible  inward 
parts  may  be  supplemented  by  theirs.  A  com- 
parative anatomist  knows  that  a  sheep's  heart  and 


XI  INSTRUCTION   IN   PHYSIOLOGY  299 

lungs,  or  eye,  must  not  be  confounded  with  those 
of  a  man ;  but,  so  far  as  the  comprehension  of  the 
elementary  facts  of  the  physiology  of  circulation, 
of  respiration,  and  of  vision  goes,  the  one  fur- 
nishes the  needful  anatomical  data  as  well  as  the 
other. 

Thus,  it  is  quite  .possible  to  give  instruction  in 
elementary  physiology  in  such  a  manner  as,  not 
only  to  confer  knowledge,  which,  for  the  reason  I 
have  mentioned,  is  useful  in  itself;  but  to  serve 
the  purposes  of  a  training  in  accurate  observation, 
and  in  the  methods  of  reasoning  of  physical 
science.  But  that  is  an  advantage  which  I 
mention  only  incidentally,  as  the  present  Confer- 
ence does  not  deal  with  education  in  the  ordinary 
sense  of  the  word. 

It  will  not  be  suspected  that  I  wish  to  make 
physiologists  of  all  the  world.  It  would  be  as 
reasonable  to  accuse  an  advocate  of  the  "  three 
R's  "  of  a  desire  to  make  an  orator,  an  author,  and 
a  mathematician  of  everybody.  A  stumbling 
reader,  a  pot-hook  writer,  and  an  arithmetician 
who  has  not  got  beyond  the  rule  of  three,  is  not  a 
person  of  brilliant  acquirements;  but  the  differ- 
ence between  such  a  member  of  society  and  one 
who  can  neither  read,  write,  nor  cipher  is  almost 
inexpressible ;  and  no  one  nowadays  doubts  the 
value  of  instruction,  even  if  it  goes  no  farther. 

The  saying  that  a  little  knowledge  is  a  danger- 
ous thing  is,  to  my  mind,  a  very  dangerous  adage, 


300  INSTRUCTION   IN   PHYSIOLOGY 


XI 


If  knowledge  is  real  and  genuine,  I  do  not  believe 
that  it  is  other  than  a  very  valuable  possession, 
however  infinitesimal  its  quantity  may  be. 
Indeed,  if  a  little  knowledge  is  dangerous,  where 
is  the  man  who  has  so  much  as  to  be  out  of 
danger  ? 

If  William  Harvey 's  life-long  labours  had  re- 
vealed to  him  a  tenth  part  of  that  which  may  be 
made  sound  and  real  knowledge  to  our  boys  and 
girls,  he  would  not  only  have  been  what  he  was, 
the  greatest  physiologist  of  his  age,  but  he  would 
have  loomed  upon  the  seventeenth  century  as  a 
sort  of  intellectual  portent.  Our  "little  know- 
ledge "  would  have  been  to  him  a  great,  astounding, 
unlooked-for  vision  of  scientific  truth. 

I  really  see  no  harm  which  can  come  of  giving 
our  children  a  little  knowledge  of  physiology. 
But  then,  as  I  have  said,  the  instruction  must  be 
real,  based  upon  observation,  eked  out  by  good 
explanatory  diagrams  and  models,  and  conveyed 
by  a  teacher  whose  own  knowledge  has  been 
acquired  by  a  study  of  the  facts ;  and  not  the 
mere  catechismal  parrot-work  which  too  often 
usurps  the  place  of  elementary  teaching. 

It  is,  I  hope,  unnecessary  for  me  to  give  a 
formal  contradiction  to  the  silly  fiction,  which  is 
assiduously  circulated  by  fanatics  who  not  only 
ought  to  know,  but  do  know,  that  their  assertions 
are  untrue,  that  I  have  advocated  the  introduction 
of  that  experimental  discipline  which  is  absolutely 


XI  INSTRUCTION   IN   PHYSIOLOGY  301 

indispensable  to  the  professed  physiologist,  into 
elementary  teaching. 

But  while  I  should  object  to  any  experimenta- 
tion which  can  justly  be  called  painful,  for  the 
purpose  of  elementary  instruction ;  and,  while,  as 
a  member  of  a.  late  Royal  Commission,  I  gladly 
did  my  best  to  prevent  the  infliction  of  needless 
pain,  for  any  purpose  ;  ]  think  it  is  my  duty  to 
take  this  opportunity  of  expressing  my  regret  at  a 
condition  of  the  law  which  permits  a  boy  to  troll 
for  pike,  or  set  lines  with  live  frog  bait,  for  idle 
amusement ;  and,  at  the  same  time,  lays  the 
teacher  of  that  boy  open  to  the  penalty  of  fine  and 
imprisonment,  if  he  uses  the  same  animal  for  the 
purpose  of  exhibiting  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
and  instructive  of  physiological  spectacles,  the 
circulation  in  the  web  of  the  foot.  No  one  could 
undertake  to  affirm  that  a  frog  is  not  incon- 
venienced by  being  wrapped  up  in  a  wet  rag,  and 
having  his  toes  tied  out ;  and  it  cannot  be  denied 
that  inconvenience  is  a  sort  of  pain.  But  you 
must  not  inflict  the  least  pain  on  a  vertebrated 
animal  for  scientific  purposes  (though  you  may 
do  a  good  deal  in  that  way  for  gain  or  for  sport) 
without  due  licence  of  the  Secretary  of  State  for 
the  Home  Department,  granted  under  the 
authority  of  the  Vivisection  Act. 

So  it  comes  about,  that,  in  this  present  year  of 
grace  1877,  two  persons  may  be  charged  with 
cruelty  to  animals.  One  has  impaled  a  frog,  and 


302  INSTRUCTION  IN   PHYSIOLOGY  xi 

suffered  the  creature  to  writhe  about  in  that 
condition  for  hours;  the  other  has  pained  the 
animal  no  more  than  one  of  us  would  be  pained 
by  tying  strings  round  his  fingers,  and  keeping 
him  in  the  position  of  a  hydropathic  patient. 
The  first  offender  says  "I  did  it  because  I  find 
fishing  very  amusing,"  and  the  magistrate  bids 
him  depart  in  peace ;  nay,  probably  wishes  him 
good  sport.  The  second  pleads,  "  I  wanted  to 
impress  a  scientific  truth,  with  a  distinctness 
attainable  in  no  other  way,  on  the  minds  of  my 
scholars/'  and  the  magistrate  fines  him  five 
pounds. 

I  cannot  but  think  that  this  is  an  anomalous 
and  not  wholly  creditable  state  of  things. 


XTI 
ON  MEDICAL  EDUCATION 

[1870] 

IT  has  given  me  sincere  pleasure  to  be  here  to-day, 
at  the  desire  of  your  highly  respected  President 
and  the  Council  of  the  College.  In  looking  back 
upon  my  own  past,  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  I  have 
found  that  it  is  a  quarter  of  a  century  since  I 
took  part  in  those  hopes  and  in  those  fears  by 
which  you  have  all  recently  been  agitated,  and 
which  now  are  at  an  end.  But,  although  so  long 
a  time  has  elapsed  since  I  was  moved  by  the  same 
feelings,  I  beg  leave  to  assure  you  that  my 
sympathy  with  both  victors  and  vanquished 
remains  fresh — so  fresh,  indeed,  that  I  could 
almost  try  to  persuade  myself  that,  after  all, 
it  cannot  be  so  very  long  ago.  My  business 
during  the  last  hour,  however,  has  been  to  show 
that  sympathy  with  one  side  only,  and  I  assure 


304  ON    MEDICAL   EDUCATION  xil 

you  I  have  done  my  best  to  play  my  part  heartily, 
and  to  rejoice  in  the  success  of  those  who  have 
succeeded.  Still,  I  should  like  to  remind  you  at 
the  end  of  it  all,  that  success  on  an  occasion  of 
this  kind,  valuable  and  important  as  it  is,  is  in 
reality  only  putting  the  foot  upon  one  rung  of 
the  ladder  which  leads  upwards;  and  that  the 
rung  of  a  ladder  was  never  meant  to  rest  upon, 
but  only  to  hold  a  man's  foot  long  enough  to 
enable  him  to  put  the  other  somewhat  higher. 
I  trust  that  you  will  all  regard  these  successes  as 
simply  reminders  that  your  next  business  is, 
having  enjoyed  the  success  of  the  day,  no  longer 
to  look  at  that  success,  but  to  look  forward  to  the 
next  difficulty  that  is  to  be  conquered.  And  now, 
having  had  so  much  to  say  to  the  successful 
candidates,  you  must  forgive  me  if  I  add  that  a  sort 
of  under-current  of  sympathy  has  been  going  on  in 
my  mind  all  the  time  for  those  who  have  not  been 
successful,  for  those  valiant  knights  who  have 
been  overthrown  in  your  tourney,  and  have  not 
made  their  appearance  in  public.  I  trust  that, 
in  accordance  with  old  custom,  they,  wounded  and 
bleeding,  have  been  carried  off  to  their  tents,  to 
be  carefully  tended  by  the  fairest  of  maidens ; 
and  in  these  days,  when  the  chances  are  that 
every  one  of  such  maidens  will  be  a  qualified 
practitioner,  I  have  no  doubt  that  all  the  splinters 
will  have  been  carefully  extracted,  and  that  they 
are  now  physically  healed.  But  there  may 


XH  ON   MEDICAL   EDUCATION  305 

remain  some  little  fragment  of  moral  or  intel- 
lectual discouragement,  and  therefore  I  will  take 
the  liberty  to  remark  that  your  chairman  to-day, 
if  he  occupied  his  proper  place,  would  be  among 
them.  Your  chairman,  in  virtue  of  his  position, 
and  for  the  brief  hour  that  he  occupies  that 
position,  is  a  person  of  importance  ;  and  it  may 
be  some  consolation  to  those  who  have  failed  if 
I  say,  that  the  quarter  of  a  century  which  I  have 
been  speaking  of,  takes  me  back  to  the  time  when 
I  was  up  at  the  University  of  London,  a  candidate 
for  honours  in  anatomy  and  physiology,  and  when 
I  was  exceedingly  well  beaten  by  my  excellent 
friend,  Dr.  Ransom,  of  Nottingham.  There  is  a 
person  here  who  recollects  that  circumstance  very 
well.  I  refer  to  your  venerated  teacher  and  mine, 
Dr.  Sharpey.  He  was  at  that  time  one  of  the 
examiners  in  anatomy  and  physiology,  and  you 
may  be  quite  sure  that,  as  he  was  one  of  the 
examiners,  there  remained  not  the  smallest  doubt 
in  my  mind  of  the  propriety  of  his  judgment,  and 
I  accepted  my  defeat  with  the  most  comfortable 
assurance  that  I  had  thoroughly  well  earned  it. 
But.  gentlemen,  the  .competitor  having  been  a 
worthy  one,  and  the  examination  a  fair  one,  I 
cannot  say  that  I  found  in  that  circumstance 
anything  very  discouraging.  I  said  to  myself, 
"  Never  mind ;  what's  the  next  thing  to  be 
done  ? "  And  I  found  that  policy  of  "  never 


306  ON   MEDICAL   EDUCATION  xn 

minding  "  and  going  on  to  the  next  thing  to  be 
done,  to  be  the  most  important  of  all  policies  in 
the  conduct  of  practical  life.  It  does  not  matter 
how  many  tumbles  you  have  in  this  life,  so  long 
as  you  do  not  get  dirty  when  you  tumble ;  it  is 
only  the  people  who  have  to  stop  to  be  washed 
and  made  clean,  who  must  necessarily  lose  the 
race.  And  I  can  assure  you  that  there  is  the 
greatest  practical  benefit  in  making  a  few  failures 
early  in  life.  You  learn  that  which  is  of  inestim- 
able importance — that  there  are  a  great  many 
people  in  the  world  who  are  just  as  clever  as  you 
are.  You  learn  to  put  your  trust,  by  and  by,  in  an 
economy  and  frugality  of  the  exercise  of  your 
powers,  both  moral  and  intellectual ;  and  you  very 
soon  find  out,  if  you  have  not  found  it  out  before, 
that  patience  and  tenacity  of  purpose  are  worth 
more  than  twice  their  weight  of  cleverness.  In 
fact,  if  I  were  to  go  on  discoursing  on  this  subject, 
I  should  become  almost  eloquent  in  praise  of 
non- success  ;  but,  lest  so  doing  should  seem,  in 
any  way,  to  wither  well-earned  laurels,  I  will 
turn  from  that  topic,  and  ask  you  to  accompany 
me  in  some  considerations  touching  another 
subject  which  has  a  very  profound  interest  for 
me,  and  which  I  think  ought  to  have  an  equally 
profound  interest  for  you. 

I  presume  that   the   great   majority   of  those 
whom  I  address  propose  to  devote  themselves  to 


XII  ON   MEDICAL   EDUCATION  307 

the  profession  of  medicine ;  and  I  do  not  doubt, 
from  the  evidences  of  ability  which  have  been 
given  to-day,  that  I  have  before  me  a  number  of 
men  who  will  rise  to  eminence  in  that  profession, 
and  who  will  exert  a  great  and  deserved  influence 
upon  its  future.  That  in  which  I  am  interested, 
and  about  which  I  wish  to  speak,  is  the  subject  of 
medical  education,  and  I  venture  to  speak  about 
it  for  the  purpose,  if  I  can,  of  influencing  you,  who 
may  have  the  power  of  influencing  the  medical 
education  of  the  future.  You  may  ask,  by  what 
authority  do  I  venture,  being  a  person  not 
concerned  in  the  practice  of  medicine,  to  meddle 
with  that  subject  ?  I  can  only  tell  you  it  is  a 
fact,  of  which  a  number  of  you  I  dare  say  are 
aware  by  experience  (and  I  trust  the  experience 
has  no  painful  associations),  that  I  Have  been  for  a 
considerable  number  of  years  (twelve  or  thirteen 
years  to  the  best  of  my  recollection)  one  of  the 
examiners  in  the  University  of  London.  You  are 
further  aware  that  the  men  who  come  up  to  the 
University  of  London  are  the  picked  men  of  the 
medical  schools  of  London,  and  therefore  such 
observations  as  I  may  have  to  make  upon  the 
state  of  knowledge  of  these  gentlemen,  if  they  be 
justified,  in  regard  to  any  faults  I  may  have  to 
find,  cannot  be  held  to  indicate  defects  in  the 
capacity,  or  in  the  power  of  application  of  those 
gentlemen,  but  must  be  laid,  more  or  less,  to  the 
account  of  the  prevalent  system  of  medical  educa- 


308  ON   MEDICAL   EDUCATION  XII 

tion.  I  will  tell  you  what  has  struck  me — but  in 
speaking  in  this  frank  way,  as  one  always  does 
about  the  defects  of  one's  friends,  I  must  beg  you 
to  disabuse  your  minds  of  the  notion  that  I  am 
alluding  to  any  particular  school,  or  to  any  par- 
ticular college,  or  to  any  particular  person ;  and 
to  believe  that  if  I  am  silent  when  I  should  be 
glad  to  speak  with  high  praise,  it  is  because  that 
praise  would  come  too  close  to  this  locality.  What 
has  struck  me,  then,  in  this  long  experience  of 
the  men  best  instructed  in  physiology  from  the 
medical  schools  of  London  is  (with  the  many  and 
brilliant  exceptions  to  which  I  have  referred), 
taking  it  as  a  whole,  and  broadly,  the  singular 
unreality  of  their  knowledge  of  physiology.  Now, 
I  use  that  word  "unreality"  advisedly  .  I  do  not  say 
"scanty  ;"  on  the  contrary,  there  is  plenty  of  it — 
a  great  deal  too  much  of  it — but  it  is  the  quality, 
the  nature  of  the  knowledge,  which  I  quarrel  with. 
I  know  I  used  to  have — I  don't  know  whether  I 
have  now,  but  I  had  once  upon  a  time — a  bad  repu- 
tation among  students  for  setting  up  a  very  high 
standard  of  acquirement,  and  I  dare  say  you  may 
think  that  the  standard  of  this  old  examiner,  who 
happily  is  now  very  nearly  an  extinct  examiner, 
has  been  pitched  too  high.  Nothing  of  the  kind, 
I  assure  you.  The  defects  I  have  noticed,  and 
the  faults  I  have  to  find,  arise  entirely  from  the 
circumstance  that  my  standard  is  pitched  too  low. 
This  is  no  paradox,  gentlemen,  but  quite  simply 


XII  ON   MEDICAL   EDUCATION  309 

the  fact.  The  knowledge  I  have  looked  for  was  a 
real,  precise,  thorough,  and  practical  knowledge  of 
fundamentals  ;  whereas  that  which  the  best  of  the 
candidates,  in  a  large  proportion  of  cases,  have  had 
to  give  me  was  a  large,  extensive,  and  inaccurate 
knowledge  of  superstructure  ;  and  that  is  what  I 
mean  by  saying  that  my  demands  went  too  low 
and  not  too  high.  What  I  have  had  to  complain 
of  is,  that  a  large  proportion  of  the  gentlemen 
who  come  up  for  physiology  to  the  University 
of  London  do  not  know  it  as  they  know  their 
anatomy,  arid  have  not  been  taught  it  as  they 
have  been  taught  their  anatomy.  Now,  I  should 
not  wonder  at  all  if  I  heard  a  great  many  "  No, 
noes  "  here  ;  but  I  am  not  talking  about  University 
College ;  as  I  have  told  you  before,  I  am  talking 
about  the  average  education  of  medical  schools. 
What  I  have  found,  and  found  so  much  reason  to 
lament,  is,  that  while  anatomy  has  been  taught  as 
a  science  ought  to  be  taught,  as  a  matter  of 
autopsy,  and  observation,  and  strict  discipline ;  in 
a  very  large  number  of  cases,  physiology  has  been 
taught  as  if  it  were  a  mere  matter  of  books  and  of 
hearsay.  I  declare  to  you,  gentlemen,  that  I  have 
often  expected  to  be  told,  when  I  have  asked 
a  question  about  the  circulation  of  the  blood, 
that  Professor  Breitkopf  is  of  opinion  that  it 
circulates,  but  that  the  whole  thing  is  an  open 
question.  I  assure  you  that  I  am  hardly 
exaggerating  the  state  of  mind  on  matters  of 


310  ON  MEDICAL  EDUCATION  xn 

fundamental  importance  which  I  have  found  over 
and  over  again  to  obtain  among  gentlemen  coming 
up  to  that  picked  examination  of  the  University 
of  London.  Now,  I  do  not  think  that  is  a 
desirable  state  of  things.  I  cannot  understand 
why  physiology  should  not  be  taught — in  fact, 
you  have  here  abundant  evidence  that  it  can  be 
taught — with  the  same  definiteness  and  the  same 
precision  as  anatomy  is  taught.  And  you  may 
depend  upon  this,  that  the  only  physiology  which 
is  to  be  of  any  good  whatever  in  medical  practice, 
or  in  its  application  to  the  study  of  medicine,  is 
that  physiology  which  a  man  knows  of  his  own 
knowledge  ;  just  as  the  only  anatomy  which  would 
be  of  any  good  to  the  surgeon  is  the  anatomy 
which  he  knows  of  his  own  knowledge.  Another 
peculiarity  I  have  found  in  the  physiology  which 
has  been  current,  and  that  is,  that  in  the  minds 
of  a  great  many  gentlemen  it  has  been  supplanted 
by  histology.  They  have  learnt  a  great  deal  of 
histology,  and  they  have  fancied  that  histology 
and  physiology  are  the  same  things.  I  have  asked 
for  some  knowledge  of  the  physics  and  the 
mechanics  and  the  chemistry  of  the  human  body, 
and  I  have  been  met  by  talk  about  cells.  I 
declare  to  you  I  believe  it  will  take  me  two  years, 
at  least,  of  absolute  rest  from  the  business  of  an 
examiner  to  hear  the  word  "  cell,"  "  germinal 
matter/'  or  "  carmine,"  without  a  sort  of  inward 
shudder. 


xn  ON  MEDICAL  EDUCATION  311 

Well,  now,  gentlemen,  I  am  sure  my  colleagues 
in  this  examination  will  bear  me  out  in  saying 
that  1  have  not  been  exaggerating  the  evils  and 
defects  which  are  current — have  been  current — in 
a  large  quantity  of  the  physiological  teaching 
the  results  of  which  come  before  examiners. 
And  it  becomes  a  very  interesting  question  to 
know  how  all  this  comes  about,  and  in  what  way 
it  can  be  remedied.  How  it  comes  about  will  be 
perfectly  obvious  to  any  one  who  has  considered 
the  growth  of  medicine.  I  suppose  that  medicine 
and  surgery  first  began  by  some  savage  more 
intelligent  than  the  rest,  discovering  that  a  certain 
herb  was  good  for  a  certain  pain,  and  that  a 
certain  pull,  somehow  or  other,  set  a  dislocated 
joint  right.  I  suppose  all  things  had  their 
humble  beginnings,  and  medicine  and  surgery 
were  in  the  same  condition.  People  who  wear 
watches  know  nothing  about  watchmaking.  A 
watch  goes  wrong  and  it  stops  ;  you  see  the 
owner  giving  it  a  shake,  or,  if  he  is  very  bold,  he 
opens  the  case,  and  gives  the  balance-wheel  a 
push.  Gentlemen,  that  is  empirical  practice,  and 
you  know  what  are  the  results  upon  the  watch. 
I  should  think  you  can  divine  what  are  the  results 
of  analogous  operations  upon  the  human  body. 
And  because  men  of  sense  very  soon  found  that 
such  were  the  effects  of  meddling  with  very  com- 
plicated machinery  they  did  not  understand,  I 
suppose  the  first  thing,  as  being  the  easiest,  was 

80 


312  ON   MEDICAL   EDUCATION  XH 

to  study  the  nature  of  the  works  of  the  human 
watch,  and  the  next  thing  was  to  study  the  way 
the  parts  worked  together,  and  the  way  the  watch 
worked.  Thus,  by  degrees,  we  have  had  growing 
up  our  body  of  anatomists,  or  knowers  of  the  con- 
struction of  the  human  watch,  and  our  physiolo- 
gists, who  know  how  the  machine  works.  And 
just  as  any  sensible  man,  who  has  a  valuable 
watch,  does  not  meddle  with  it  himself,  but  goes 
to  some  one  who  has  studied  watchmaking,  and 
understands  what  the  effect  of  doing  this  or  that 
may  be ;  so,  I  suppose,  the  man  who,  having 
charge  of  that  valuable  machine,  his  own  body, 
wants  to  have  it  kept  in  good  order,  comes  to  a 
professor  of  the  medical  art  for  the  purpose  of 
having  it  set  right,  believing  that,  by  deduction 
from  the  facts  of  structure  and  from  the  facts 
of  function,  the  physician  will  divine  what  may 
be  the  matter  with  his  bodily  watch  at  that 
particular  time,  and  what  may  be  the  best  means 
of  setting  it  right.  If  that  may  be  taken  as  a 
just  representation  of  the  relation  of  the  theoreti- 
cal branches  of  medicine — what  we  may  call  the 
institutes  of  medicine,  to  use  an  old  term — to  the 
practical  branches,  I  think  it  will  be  obvious  to 
you  that  they  are  of  prime  and  fundamental 
importance.  Whatever  tends  to  affect  the  teach- 
ing of  them  injuriously  must  tend  to  destroy  and 
to  disorganise  the  whole  fabric  of  the  medical  art.  I 
think  every  sensible  man  has  seen  this  long  ago ; 


XII  ON   MEDICAL  EDUCATION  313 

but  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  attaining  good 
teaching  in  the  different  branches  of  the  theory, 
or  institutes,  of  medicine  are  very  serious.  It  is  a 
comparatively  easy  matter — pray  mark  that  I  use 
the  word  "  comparatively  " — it  is  a  comparatively 
easy  matter  to  learn  anatomy  and  to  teach  it ;  it 
is  a  very  difficult  matter  to  learn  physiology  and 
to  teach  it.  It  is  a  very  difficult  matter  to  know 
and  to  teach  those  branches  of  physics  and  those 
branches  of  chemistry  which  bear  directly  upon 
physiology ;  and  hence  it  is  that,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  the  teaching  of  physiology,  and  the  teaching 
of  the  physics  and  the  chemistry  which  bear  upon 
it,  must  necessarily  be  in  a  state  of  relative 
imperfection ;  and  there  is  nothing  to  be  grumbled 
at  in  the  fact  that  this  relative  imperfection  exists. 
But  is  the  relative  imperfection  which  exists  only 
such  as  is  necessary,  or  is  it  made  worse  by  our 
practical  arrangements  ?  I  believe — and  if  I  did 
not  so  believe  I  should  not  have  troubled  you 
with  these  observations — I  believe  it  is  made 
infinitely  worse  by  our  practical  arrangements, 
or  rather,  I  ought  to  say,  our  very  unpractical 
arrangements.  Some  very  wise  man  long  ago 
affirmed  that  every  question,  in  the  long  run,  was 
a  question  of  finance  ;  and  there  is  a  good  deal  to 
be  said  for  that  view.  Most  assuredly  the  question 
of  medical  teaching  is,  in  a  very  large  and  broad 
sense,  a  question  of  finance.  What  I  mean  is 
this :  that  in  London  the  arrangements  of  the 


314  ON  MEDICAL  EDUCATION  xif 

medical  schools,  and  the  number  of  them,  are 
such  as  to  render  it  almost  impossible  that  men 
who  confine  themselves  to  the  teaching  of  the 
theoretical  branches  of  the  profession  should  be 
able  to  make,  their  bread  by  that  operation ;  and, 
you  know,  if  a  man  cannot  make  his  bread  he 
cannot  teach — at  least  his  teaching  comes  to  a 
speedy  end.  That  is  a  matter  of  physiology. 
Anatomy  is  fairly  well  taught,  because  it  lies  in 
the  direction  of  practice,  and  a  man  is  all  the 
better  surgeon  for  being  a  good  anatomist.  It 
does  not  absolutely  interfere  with  the  pursuits  of 
a  practical  surgeon  if  he  should  hold  a  Chair  of 
Anatomy — though  I  do  not  for  one  moment  say 
that  he  would  not  be  a  better  teacher  if  he  did 
not  devote  himself  to  practice.  (Applause.)  Yes, 
I  know  exactly  what  that  cheer  means,  but  I 
am  keeping  as  carefully  as  possible  from  any  sort 
of  allusion  to  Professor  Ellis.  But  the  fact  is, 
that  even  human  anatomy  has  now  grown  to  be 
so  large  a  matter,  that  it  takes  the  whole  devotion 
of  a  man's  life  to  put  the  great  mass  of  knowledge 
upon  that  subject  into  such  a  shape  that  it  can 
be  teachable  to  the  mind  of  the  ordinary  student. 
What  the  student  wants  in  a  professor  is  a  man 
who  shall  stand  between  him  and  the  infinite 
diversity  and  variety  of  human  knowledge,  and 
who  shall  gather  all  that  together,  and  extract 
from  it  that  which  is  capable  of  being  assimilated 
by  the  mind.  That  function  is  a  vast  and  au 


xn  ON   MEDICAL   EDUCATION  fj!5 

important  one,  and  unless,  in  such  subjects  as 
anatomy,  a  man  is  wholly  free  from  other  cares,  it 
is  almost  impossible  that  he  can  perform  it 
thoroughly  and  well.  But  if  it  be  hardly  possible 
for  a  man  to  pursue  anatomy  without  actually 
breaking  with  his  profession,  how  is  it  possible  for 
him  to  pursue  physiology  ? 

I  get  every  year  those  very  elaborate  reports  of 
Henle  and  Meissner — volumes  of,  I  suppose,  400 
pages  altogether — and  they  consist  merely  of 
abstracts  of  the  memoirs  and  works  which  have 
been  written  on  Anatomy  and  Physiology — only 
abstracts  of  them  !  How  is  a  man  to  keep  up  his 
acquaintance  with  all  that  is  doing  in  the 
physiological  world — in  a  world  advancing  with 
enormous  strides  every  day  and  every  hour — if 
he  has  to  be  distracted  with  the  cares  of  practice  ? 
You  know  very  well  it  must  be  impracticable  to  do 
so.  Our  men  of  ability  join  our  medical  schools 
with  an  eye  to  the  future.  They  take  the  Chairs 
of  Anatomy  or  of  Physiology  ;  and  by  and  by  they 
leave  those  Chairs  for  the  more  profitable  pursuits 
into  which  they  have  drifted  by  professional 
success,  and  so  they  become  clothed,  and  phy- 
siology is  bare.  The  result  is,  that  in  those 
schools  in  which  physiology  is  thus  left  to  the 
benevolence,  so  to  speak,  of  those  who  have  no 
time  to  look  to  it,  the  effect  of  such  teaching 
comes  out  obviously,  and  is  made  manifest  in 
what  I  spoke  of  just  now — the  unreality,  the 


316  ON   MEDICAL   EDUCATION  xn 

bookishness  of  the  knowledge  of  the  taught. 
And  if  this  is  the  case  in  physiology,  still  more 
must  it  be  the  case  in  those  branches  of  physics 
which  are  the  foundation  of  physiology ;  although 
it  may  be  less  the  case  in  chemistry,  because  for 
an  able  chemist  a  certain  honourable  and  inde- 
pendent career  lies  in  the  direction  of  his  work, 
and  he  is  able,  like  the  anatomist,  to  look  upon 
what  he  may  teach  to  the  student  as  not 
absolutely  taking  him  away  from  his  bread- 
winning  pursuits. 

But  it  is  of  no  use  to  grumble  about  this  state 
of  things  unless  one  is  prepared  to  indicate  some 
sort  of  practical  remedy.  And  I  believe — and  I 
venture  to  make  the  statement  because  I  am 
wholly  independent  of  all  sorts  of  medical  schools, 
and  may,  therefore,  say  what  I  believe  without 
being  supposed  to  be  affected  by  any  personal 
interest — but  I  say  I  believe  that  the  remedy  for 
this  state  of  things,  for  that  imperfection  of  our 
theoretical  knowledge  which  keeps  down  the 
ability  of  England  at  the  present  time  in  medical 
matters,  is  a  mere  affair  of  mechanical  arrange- 
ment ;  that  so  long  as  you  have  a  dozen  medical 
schools  scattered  about  in  different  parts  of  the 
metropolis,  and  dividing  the  students  among 
them,  so  long,  in  all  the  smaller  schools  at  any 
rate,  it  is  impossible  that  any  other  state  of. 
things  than  that  which  I  have  been  depicting 
should  obtain.  Professors  must  live;  to  live  they 


Xii  ON   MEDICAL   EDUCATION  317 

must  occupy  themselves  with  practice,  and  if  they 
occupy  themselves  with  practice,  the  pursuit  of 
the  abstract  branches  of  science  must  go  to  the 
wall.  All  this  is  a  plain  and  obvious  matter  of 
common-sense  reasoning.  I  believe  you  will 
never  alter  this  state  of  things  until,  either  by 
consent  or  "by  force  majeure — and  I  should  be  very 
sorry  to  see  the  latter  applied — but  until  there 
is  some  new  arrangement,  and  until  all  the 
theoretical  branches  of  the  profession,  the  institutes 
of  medicine,  are  taught  in  London  in  not  more 
than  one  or  two,  or  at  the  outside  three,  central 
institutions,  no  good  will  be  effected.  If  that 
large  body  of  men,  the  medical  students  of 
London,  were  obliged  in  the  first  place  to  get  a 
knowledge  of  the  theoretical  branches  of  their 
profession  in  two  or  three  central  schools,  there 
would  be  abundant  means  for  maintaining  able 
professors — not,  indeed,  for  enriching  them,  as 
they  would  be  able  to  enrich  themselves  by 
practice — but  for  enabling  them  to  make  that 
choice  which  such  men  are  so  willing  to  make ; 
namely,  the  choice  between  wealth  and  a  modest 
competency,  when  that  modest  competency  is  to 
be  combined  with  a  scientific  career,  and  the 
means  of  advancing  knowledge.  I  do  not  believe 
that  all  the  talking  about,  and  tinkering  of, 
medical  education  will  do  the  slightest  good  until 
the  fact  is  clearly  recognised,  that  men  must  be 
thoroughly  grounded  in  the  theoretical  branches 


318  ON   MEDICAL   EDUCATION  xil 

of  their  profession,  and  that  to  this  end  the 
teaching  of  those  theoretical  branches  must  be 
confined  to  two  or  three  centres. 

Now  let  me  add  one  other  word,  and  that  is, 
that  if  I  were  a  despot,  I  would  cut  down  these 
branches  to  a  very  considerable  extent.  The  next 
thing  to  be  done  beyond  that  which  I  mentioned 
just  now,  is  to  go  back  to  primary  education. 
The  great  step  towards  a  thorough  medical  educa- 
tion is  to  insist  upon  the  teaching  of  the  elements 
of  the  physical  sciences  in  all  schools,  so  thnt 
medical  students  shall  not  go  up  to  the  medical 
colleges  utterly  ignorant  of  that  with  which  they 
have  to  deal ;  to  insist  on  the  elements  of  chem- 
istry, the  elements  of  botany,  and  the  elements  of 
physics  being  taught  in  our  ordinary  and  common 
schools,  so  that  there  shall  be  some  preparation 
for  the  discipline  of  medical  colleges.  And,  if 
this  reform  were  once  effected,  you  might  confine 
the  "  Institutes  of  Medicine  "  to  physics  as  applied 
to  physiology — to  chemistry  as  applied  to  physi- 
ology— to  physiology  itself,  and  to  anatomy. 
Afterwards,  the  student,  thoroughly  grounded  in 
these  matters,  might  go  to  any  hospital  he  pleased 
for  the  purpose  of  studying  the  practical  branches 
of  his  profession.  The  practical  teaching  might 
be  made  as  local  as  you  like  ;  and  you  might  use 
to  advantage  the  opportunities  afforded  by  all  these 
local  institutions  for  acquiring  a  knowledge  of  the 
practice  of  the  profession.  But  you  may  say: 


XII  ON   MEDICAL  EDUCATION  319 

"  This  is  abolishing  a  great  deal ;  you  are  getting 
rid  of  botany  and  zoology  to  begin  with."  I  have 
not  a  doubt  that  they  ought  to  be  got  rid  of,  as 
branches  of  special  medical  education;  they 
ought  to  be  put  back  to  an  earlier  stage,  and 
made  branches  of  general  education.  Let  me  say, 
by  way  of  self-denying  ordinance,  for  which  you 
will,  I  am  sure,  give  me  credit,  that  I  believe  that 
comparative  anatomy  ought  to  be  absolutely 
abolished.  I  say  so,  not  without  a  certain  fear  of 
the  Vice-Chancellor  of  the  University  of  London 
who  sits  upon  my  left.  But  I  do  not  think  the 
charter  gives  him  very  much  power  over  me; 
moreover,  I  shall  soon  come  to  an  end  of  my 
examinership,  and  therefore  I  am  not  afraid,  but 
shall  go  on  to  say  what  I  was  going  to  say,  and 
that  is,  that  in  my  belief  it  is  a  downright  cruelty 
— I  have  no  other  word  for  it — to  require  from 
gentlemen  who  are  engaged  in  medical  studies, 
the  pretence — for  it  is  nothing  else,  and  can  be 
nothing  else,  than  a  pretence — of  a  knowledge  of 
comparative  anatomy  as  part  of  their  medical 
curriculum.  Make  it  part  of  their  Arts  teaching 
if  you  like,  make  it  part  of  their  general  education 
if  you  like,  make  it  part  of  their  qualification  for 
the  scientific  degree  by  all  means— that  is  its 
proper  place;  but  to  require  that  gentlemen 
whose  whole  faculties  should  be  bent  upon  the 
acquirement  of  a  real  knowledge  of  human  physi- 
ology should  worry  themselves  with  getting  up 


320  ON  MEDICAL   EDUCATION  XU 

hearsay  about  the  alternation  of  generations  in 
the  Salpse  is  really  monstrous.  I  cannot  charac- 
terise it  in  any  other  way.  And  having  sacrificed 
my  own  pursuit,  I  am  sure  I  may  sacrifice  other 
people's ;  and  I  make  this  remark  with  all  the 
more  willingness  because  I  discovered,  on  reading 
the  names  of  your  Professors  just  now,  that  the 
Professor  of  Materia  Medica  is  not  present.  I 
must  confess,  if  I  had  my  way  I  should  abolish 
Materia  Medica l  altogether.  I  recollect,  when  I 
was  first  under  examination  at  the  University  of 
London,  Dr.  Pereira  was  the  examiner,  and  you 
know  that  Pereira's  "  Materia  Medica  "  was  a  book 
de  omnibus  rebus.  I  recollect  my  struggles  with 
that  book  late  at  night  and  early  in  the  morning 
(I  worked  very  hard  in  those  days),  and  I  do 
believe  that  I  got  that  book  into  my  head  some- 
how or  other,  but  then  I  will  undertake  to  say 
that  I  forgot  it  all  a  week  afterwards.  Not  one 
trace  of  a  knowledge  of  drugs  has  remained  in  my 
memory  from  that  time  to  this ;  and  really,  as  a 
matter  of  common  sense,  I  cannot  understand  the 
arguments  for  obliging  a  medical  man  to  know  all 
about  drugs  and  where  they  come  from.  Why 
not  make  him  belong  to  the  Iron  and  Steel 
Institute,  and  learn  something  about  cutlery, 
because  he  uses  knives  ? 

But  do  not  suppose  that,  after  all  these  deduc- 

1  It  will,  I  hope,  be  understood  that  I  do  not  include  Thera- 
peutics under  this  head. 


XII  ON   MEDICAL   EDUCATION  321 

tions,  there  would  not  be  ample  room  for  your 
activity.  Let  us  count  up  what  we  have  left.  I 
suppose  all  the  time  for  medical  education  that 
can  be  hoped  for  is,  at  the  outside,  about  four 
years.  Well,  what  have  you  to  master  in  those 
four  years  upon  my  supposition  ?  Physics  applied 
to  physiology;  chemistry  applied  to  physiology; 
physiology  ;  anatomy ;  surgery ;  medicine  (includ- 
ing therapeutics) ;  obstetrics  ;  hygiene ;  and  medi- 
cal jurisprudence — nine  subjects  for  four  years! 
And  when  you  consider  what  those  subjects  are, 
and  that  the  acquisition  of  anything  beyond  the 
rudiments  of  any  one  of  them  may  tax  the 
energies  of  a  lifetime,  I  think  that  even  those 
energies  which  you  young  gentlemen  have  been 
displaying  for  the  last  hour  or  two  might  be  taxed 
to  keep  you  thoroughly  up  to  what  is  wanted  for 
your  medical  career. 

I  entertain  a  very  strong  conviction  that  any 
one  who  adds  to  medical  education  one  iota  or 
tittle  beyond  what  is  absolutely  necessary,  is 
guilty  of  a  very  grave  offence.  Gentlemen,  it  will 
depend  upon  the  knowledge  that  you  happen  to 
possess, — upon  your  means  of  applying  it  within 
your  own  field  of  action, — whether  the  bills  of 
mortality  of  your  district  are  increased  or  dimin- 
ished ;  and  that,  gentlemen,  is  a  very  serious  con- 
sideration indeed.  And,  under  those  circum- 
stances, the  subjects  with  which  you  have  to  deal 
being  so  difficult,  their  extent  so  enormous,  and 


322  ON   MEDICAL   EDUCATION  xu 

the  time  at  your  disposal  so  limited,  I  could  not 
feel  my  conscience  easy  if  I  did  not,  on  such  an 
occasion  as  this,  raise  a  protest  against  employing 
your  energies  upon  the  acquisition  of  any  know- 
ledge which  may  not  be  absolutely  needed  in  your 
f  uture  career. 


XIII 

THE    STATE    AND    THE    MEDICAL 
PROFESSION 

[1884] 

AT  intervals  during  the  last  quarter  of  a  century 
committees  of  the  Houses  of  the  Legislature  and 
specially  appointed  commissions  have  occupied 
themselves  with  the  affairs  of  the  medical  pro- 
fession. Much  evidence  has  been  taken,  much 
wrangling  has  gone  on  over  the  reports  of  these 
bodies;  and  sometimes  much  trouble  has  been 
taken  to  get  measures  based  upon  all  this  work 
through  Parliament,  but  very  little  has  been 
achieved. 

The  Bill  introduced  last  session  was  not  more 
fortunate  than  several  predecessors.  I  suppose 
that  it  is  not  right  to  rejoice  in  the  misfortunes  of 
anything,  even  a  Bill ;  but  I  confess  that  this 
event  afforded  me  lively  satisfaction,  for  I  was  a 
member  of  the  Royal  Commission  on  the  report 


824     STATE   AND   THE   MEDICAL  PROFESSION      xin 

of  which  the  Bill  was  founded,  and  I  did  my  best 
to  oppose  and  nullify  that  report. 

That  the  question  must  be  taken  up  again 
and  finally  dealt  with  by  the  Legislature  before 
long  cannot  be  doubted ;  but  in  the  meanwhile 
there  is  time  for  reflection,  and  I  think  that  the  non- 
medical  public  would  be  wise  if  they  paid  a  little 
attention  to  a  subject  which  is  really  of  consider- 
able importance  to  them. 

The  first  question  which  a  plain  man  is  disposed 
to  ask  himself  is,  Why  should  the  State  interfere 
with  the  profession  of  medicine  any  more  than  it 
does,  say,  with  the  profession  of  engineering  ?  Any- 
body who  pleases  may  call  himself  an  engineer, 
and  may  practice  as  such.  The  State  confers  no 
title  upon  engineers,  and  does  not  profess  to  tell  the 
public  that  one  man  is  a  qualified  engineer  and 
that  another  is  not  so. 

The  answers  which  are  given  to  the  question 
are  various,  and  most  of  them,  I  think,  are  bad. 
A  large  number  of  persons  seem  to  be  of  opinion 
that  the  State  is  bound  no  less  to  take  care  of  the 
general  public,  than  to  see  that  it  is  protected 
against  incompetent  persons,  against  quacks  and 
medical  impostors  in  general.  I  do  not  take  that 
view  of  the  case.  I  think  it  is  very  much  whole- 
somer  for  the  public  to  take  care  of  itself  in  this 
as  in  all  other  matters ;  and  although  I  am  not 
such  a  fanatic  for  the  liberty  of  the  subject  as  to 
plead  that  interfering  with  the  way  in  which  a 


xm      STATE   AND   THE  MEDICAL   PROFESSION     325 

man  may  choose  to  be  killed  is  a  violation  of 
that  liberty,  yet  I  do  think  that  it  is  far  better  to 
let  everybody  do  as  he  likes.  Whether  that  be  so 
or  not,  I  am  perfectly  certain  that,  as  a  matter  of 
practice,  it  is  absolutely  impossible  to  prohibit  the 
practice  of  medicine  by  people  who  have  no  special 
qualification  for  it.  Consider  the  terrible  con- 
sequences of  attempting  to  prohibit  practice  by  a 
very  large  class  of  persons  who  are  certainly  not 
technically  qualified — I  am  far  from  saying  a  word 
as  to  whether  they  are  otherwise  qualified  or  not. 
The  number  of  Ladies  Bountiful — grandmothers, 
aunts,  and  mothers-in-law — whose  chief  delight  lies 
in  the  administration  of  their  cherished  provision 
of  domestic  medicine,  is  past  computation,  and 
one  shudders  to  think  of  what  might  happen  if 
their  energies  were  turned  from  this  innocuous,  if 
not  beneficent  channel,  by  the  strong  arm  of  the 
law.  But  the  thing  is  impracticable. 

Another  reason  for  intervention  is  propounded, 
I  am  sorry  to  say,  by  some,  though  not  many, 
members  of  the  medical  profession,  and  is  simply 
an  expression  of  that  trades  unionism  which  tends 
to  infest  professions  no  less  than  trades. 

The  general  practitioner  trying  to  make  both 
ends  meet  on  a  poor  practice,  whose  medical  train- 
ing has  cost  him  a  good  deal  of  time  and  money, 
finds  that  many  potential  patients,  whose  small 
fees  would  be  welcome  as  the  little  that  helps, 
prefer  to  go  and  get  their  shilling's  worth  of 


326     STATE   AND   THE   MEDICAL   PROFESSION      XIII 

"  doctor's  stuff"  and  advice  from  the  chemist  and 
druggist  round  the  corner,  who  has  not  paid 
sixpence  for  his  medical  training,  becaiise  he  has 
never  had  any. 

The  general  practitioner  thinks  this  is  very  hard 
upon  him  and  ought  to  be  stopped.  It  is  perhaps 
natural  that  he  should  think  so,  though  it  would 
be  very  difficult  for  him  to  justify  his  opinion  on 
any  ground  of  public  policy.  But  the  question  is 
really  not  worth  discussion,  as  it  is  obvious  that 
it  would  be  utterly  impracticable  to  stop  the 
practice  "over  the  counter"  even  it  it  were 
desirable. 

Is  a  man  who  has  a  sudden  attack  of  pain 
in  tooth  or  stomach  not  to  be  permitted  to  go  to 
the  nearest  druggist's  shop  and  ask  for  something 
that  will  relieve  him  ?  The  notion  is  preposterous. 
But  if  this  is  to  be  legal,  the  whole  principle  of  the 
permissibility  of  counter  practice  is  granted. 

In  my  judgment  the  intervention  of  the  State  in 
the  affairs  of  the  medical  profession  can  be  justified 
not  upon  any  pretence  of  protecting  the  public, 
and  still  less  upon  that  of  protecting  the  medical 
profession,  but  simply  and  solely  upon  the  fact  that 
the  State  employs  medical  men  for  certain  purposes, 
and,  as  employer,  has  a  right  to  define  the  con- 
ditions on  which  it  will  accept  service.  It  is  for 
the  interest  of  the  community  that  no  person  shall 
die  without  there  being  some  official  recognition 
of  the  cause  of  his  death.  It  is  a  matter  of  the 


Xlll      STATE   AND   THE   MEDICAL   PROFESSION     327 

highest  importance  to  the  community  that,  in 
civil  and  criminal  cases,  the  law  shall  be  able  to 
have  recourse  to  persons  whose  evidence  may 
be  taken  as  that  of  experts ;  and  it  will  not 
be  doubted  that  the  State  has  a  right  to  dictate 
the  conditions  under  which  it  will  appoint  persons 
to  the  vast  number  of  *  naval,  military,  and 
civil  medical  offices  held  directly  or  indirectly 
under  the  Government.  Here,  and  here  only, 
it  appears  to  me,  lies  the  justification  for  the 
intervention  of  the  State  in  medical  affairs.  It 
says,  or,  in  my  judgment,  should  say,  to  the  public, 
"  Practice  medicine  if  you  like — go  to  be  practised 
upon  by  anybody;"  and  to  the  medical  practitioner, 
"Have  a  qualification,  or  do  not  have  a  qualification 
if  people  don't  mind  it ;  but  if  the  State  is  to 
receive  your  certificate  of  death,  if  the  State  is  to 
take  your  evidence  as  that  of  an  expert,  if  the 
State  is  to  give  you  any  kind  of  civil,  or  military, 
or  naval  appointment,  then  we  can  call  upon  you 
to  comply  with  our  conditions,  and  to  produce 
evidence  that  you  are,  in  our  sense  of  the  word, 
qualified.  Without  that  we  will  not  place  you 
in  that  position."  As  a  matter  of  fact,  that  is  the 
relation  of  the  State  to  the  medical  profession  in 
this  country.  For  my  part,  I  think  it  an  extremely 
healthy  relation  ;  and  it  is  one  that  I  should  be  very 
sorry  to  see  altered,  except  in  so  far  that  it  would 
certainly  be  better  if  greater  facilities  were  given  for 
the  swift  and  sharp  punishment  of  those  who  pro- 
si 


328     STATE  AND   THE  MEDICAL   PROFESSION      xin 

fess  to  have  the  State  qualification  when,  in  point 
of  fact,  they  do  not  possess  it.  They  are  simply 
cheats  and  swindlers,  like  other  people  who  profess 
to  be  what  they  are  not,  and  should  be  punished 
as  such. 

But  supposing  we  are  agreed  about  the  justifica- 
tion of  State  intervention  in  medical  affairs,  new 
questions  arise  as  to  the  manner  in  which  that 
intervention  should  take  place  and  the  extent  to 
which  it  should  go,  on  which  the  divergence  of 
opinion  is  even  greater  than  it  is  on  the  general 
question  of  intervention. 

It  is  now,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  something  over 
forty  years  since  I  began  my  medical  studies  ;  and, 
at  that  time,  the  state  of  affairs  was  extremely 
singular.  I  should  think  it  hardly  possible  that 
it  could  have  obtained  anywhere  but  in  such  a 
country  as  England,  which  cherishes  a  fine  old 
crusted  abuse  as  much  as  it  does  its  port  wine. 
At  that  time  there  were  twenty- one  licensing 
bodies — that  is  to  say,  bodies  whose  certificate 
was  received  by  the  State  as  evidence  that  the 
persons  who  possessed  that  certificate  were  medical 
experts.  How  these  bodies  came  to  possess  these 
powers  is  a  very  curious  chapter  in  history,  in 
which  it  would  be  out  of  place  to  enlarge.  They 
were  partly  universities,  partly  medical  guilds  and 
corporations,  partly  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury. 
Those  were  the  three  sources  from  which  the 
licence  to  practice  came  in  that  day.  There  was 


XIII       STATE    AND   THE  MEDICAL   PROFESSION    329 

no  central  authority,  there  was  nothing  to  pre- 
vent any  one  of  those  licensing  authorities  from 
granting  a  licence  to  any  one  upon  any  conditions 
it  thought  fit.  The  examination  might  be  a  sham, 
the  curriculum  might  be  a  sham,  the  certificate 
might  be  bought  and  sold  like  anything  in  a 
shop ;  or,  on  the  other  hand,  the  examination 
might  be  fairly  good  and  the  diploma  corre- 
spondingly valuable  ;  but  there  was  not  the  smallest 
guarantee,  except  the  personal  character  of  the 
people  who  composed  the  administration  of  each 
of  these  licensing  bodies,  as  to  what  might  happen. 
It  was  possible  for  a  young  man  to  come  to 
London  and  to  spend  two  years  and  six  months 
of  the  time  of  his  compulsory  three  years  "  walking 
the  hospitals  "  in  idleness  or  worse ;  he  could  then, 
by  putting  himself  in  the  hands  of  a  judicious 
"grinder"  for  the  remaining  six  months,  pass 
triumphantly  through  the  ordeal  of  one  hour's 
viva  voce  examination,  which  was  all  that  was 
absolutely  necessary,  to  enable  him  to  be  turned 
loose  upon  the  public,  like  death  on  the  pale 
horse,  "  conquering  and  to  conquer,"  with  the  full 
sanction  of  the  law,  as  a  "  qualified  practitioner." 

It  is  difficult  to  imagine,  at  present,  such  a 
state  of  things,  still  more  difficult  to  depict  the 
consequences  of  it,  because  they  would  appear 
like  a  gross  and  malignant  caricature  ;  but  it  may 
be  said  that  there  was  never  a  system,  or  want 
of  system,  which  was  better  calculated  to  ruin 


330     STATE   AND   THE   MEDICAL   PROFESSION      xill 

the  students  who  came  under  it,  or  to  degrade  the 
profession  as  a  whole.  My  memory  goes  back  to 
a  time  when  models  from  whom  the  Bob  Sawyer 
of  the  Pickwick  Papers  might  have  been  drawn 
were  anything  but  rare. 

Shortly  before  my  student  days,  however,  the 
dawn  of  a  better  state  of  things  in  England  began 
to  be  visible,  in  consequence  of  the  establishment 
of  the  University  of  London,  and  the  compara- 
tively very  high  standard  which  it  placed  before 
its  medical  graduates. 

I  say  comparatively  high  standard,  for  the 
requirements  of  the  University  in  those  days,  and 
even  during  the  twelve  years  at  a  later  period, 
when  I  was  one  of  the  examiners  of  the  medical 
faculty,  were  such  as  would  not  now  be  thought 
more  than  respectable,  and  indeed  were  in  many 
respects  very  imperfect.  But,  relatively  to  the 
means  of  learning,  the  standard  was  high,  and 
none  but  the  more  able  and  ambitious  of  the 
students  dreamed  of  passing  the  University. 
Nevertheless,  the  fact  that  many  men  of  this 
stamp  did  succeed  in  obtaining  their  degrees,  led 
others  to  follow  in  their  steps,  and  slowly  but 
surely  reacted  upon  the  standard  of  teaching  in 
the  better  medical  schools.  Then  came  the 
Medical  Act  of  1858.  That  Act  introduced  two 
immense  improvements  :  one  of  them  was  the 
institution  of  what  is  called  the  Medical  Register, 
upon  which  the  names  of  all  persons  recognised 


XIII      STATE   AND   THE   MEDICAL   PROFESSION     331 

by  the  State  as  medical  practitioners  are  entered : 
and  the  other  was  the  establishment  of  the 
Medical  Council,  which  is  a  kind  of  Medical 
Parliament,  composed  of  representatives  of  the 
licensing  bodies  and  of  leading  men  in  the  medical 
profession  nominated  by  the  Crown.  The  powers 
given  by  the  Legislature  to  the  Medical  Council 
were  found  practically  to  be  very  limited,  but  I 
think  that  no  fair  observer  of  the  work  will  doubt 
that  this  much  attacked  body  has  excited  no 
small  influence  in  bringing  about  the  great  change 
for  the  better,  which  has  been  effected  in  the 
training  of  men  for  the  medical  profession  within 
my  recollection. 

Another  source  of  improvement  must  be  recog- 
nised in  the  Scottish  Universities,  and  especially 
in  the  medical  faculty  of  the  University  of 
Edinburgh.  The  medical  education  and  examina- 
tions of  this  body  were  for  many  years  the  best  of 
their  kind  in  these  islands,  and  I  doubt  if,  at  the 
present  moment,  the  three  kingdoms  can  show 
a  better  school  of  medicine  than  that  of  Edin- 
burgh. The  vast  number  of  medical  students  at 
that  University  is  sufficient  evidence  of  the 
opinion  of  those  most  interested  in  this  subject. 

Owing  to  all  these  influences,  and  to  the  revo- 
lution which  has  taken  place  in  the  course  of  the 
last  twenty  years  in  our  conceptions  of  the  proper 
method  of  teaching  physical  science,  the  training 
of  the  medical  student  in  a  good  school,  and  the 


332     STATE  AND   THE   MEDICAL   PROFESSION      xill 

examination  test  applied  by  the  great  majority  of 
the  present  licensing  bodies,-  reduced  now  to 
nineteen,  in  consequence  of  the  retirement  of  the 
Archbishop  and  the  fusion  of  two  of  the  other 
licensing  bodies,  are  totally  different  from  what 
they  were  even  twenty  years  ago. 

I  was  perfectly  astonished,  upon  one  of  my  sons 
commencing  his  medical  career  the  other  day, 
when  I  contrasted  the  carefully-watched  courses 
of  theoretical  and  practical  instruction,  which  he 
is  expected  to  follow  with  regularity  and  industry, 
and  the  number  and  nature  of  the  examinations 
which  he  will  have  to  pass  before  he  can  receive 
his  licence,  not  only  with  the  monstrous  laxity  of 
my  own  student  days,  but  even  with  the  state  of 
things  which  obtained  when  my  term  of  office  as 
examiner  in  the  University  of  London  expired 
some  sixteen  years  ago. 

I  have  no  hesitation  in  expressing  the  opinion, 
which  is  fully  borne  out  by  the  evidence  taken 
before  the  late  Eoyal  Commission,  that  a  large 
proportion  of  the  existing  licensing  bodies  grant 
their  licence  on  conditions  which  ensure  quite  as 
high  a  standard  as  it  is  practicable  or  advisable  to 
exact  under  present  circumstances,  and  that  they 
show  every  desire  to  keep  pace  with  the  improve- 
ments of  the  times.  And  I  think  there  can  be 
no  doubt  that  the  great  majority  have  so  much 
improved  their  ways,  that  their  standard  is  far 
above  that  of  the  ordinary  qualification  thirty 


XIII      STATE   AND   THE   MEDICAL   PROFESSION     333 

years  ago,  and  I  cannot  see  what  excuse  there 
would  be  for  meddling  with  them  if  it  were  not 
for  two  other  defects  which  have  to  be  reme- 
died. 

Unfortunately  there  remain  two  or  three  black 
sheep — licensing  bodies  which  simply  trade  upon 
their  privilege,  and  sell  the  cheapest  wares  they 
can  for  shame's  sake  supply  to  the  bidder. 
Another  defect  in  the  existing  system,  even  where 
the  examination  has  been  so  greatly  improved  as 
to  be  good,  of  its  kind,  is  that  there  are  certain 
licensing  bodies  which  give  a  qualification  for  an 
acquaintance  with  either  medicine  or  surgery 
alone,  and  which  more  or  less  ignore  obstetrics. 
This  is  a  revival  of  the  archaic  condition  of  the 
profession  when  surgical  operations  were  mostly 
left  to  the  barbers  and  obstetrics  to  the  mid- 
wives,  and  when  the  physicians  thought  them- 
selves, and  were  considered  by  the  world,  the 
"  superior  persons  "  of  the  profession.  I  remem- 
ber a  story  was  current  in  my  young  days  of  a 
great  court  physician  who  was  travelling  with  a 
friend,  like  himself,  bound  on  a  visit  to  a  country 
house.  The  friend  fell  down  in  an  apoplectic  fit, 
and  the  physician  refused  to  bleed  him  because 
it  was  contrary  to  professional  etiquette  for  a 
physician  to  perform  that  operation.  Whether 
the  friend  died  or  whether  he  got  better  because 
lie  was  not  bled  I  do  not  remember,  but  the  moral 
of  the  story  is  the  same.  On  the  other  hand,  a 


834     STATE  AND  THE  MEDICAL  PROFESSION      xm 

famous  surgeon  was  asked  whether  he  meant  to 
bring  up  his  son  to  his  own  calling,  "  No/'  he 
said,  "he  is  such  a  fool,  I  mean  to  make  a 
physician  of  him." 

Nowadays,  it  is  happily  recognised  that  medicine 
is  one  and  indivisible,  and  that  no  one  can  properly 
practice  one  branch  who  is  not  familiar  with  at 
any  rate  the  principles  of  all.  Thus  the  two 
great  things  that  are  wanted  now  are,  in  the  first 
place,  some  means  of  enforcing  such  a  degree  of 
uniformity  upon  all  the  examining  bodies  that 
none  should  present  a  disgracefully  low  minimum 
or  pass  examination ;  and  the  second  point  is  that 
some  body  or  other  shall  have  the  power  of 
enforcing  upon  .every  candidate  for  the  licence  to 
practice  the  study  of  the  three  branches,  what 
is  called  the  tripartite  qualification.  All  the 
members  of  the  late  commission  were  agreed  that 
these  were  the  main  points  to  be  attended  to 
in  any  proposals  for  the  further  improvement  of 
medical  training  and  qualification. 

But  such  being  the  ends  in  view,  our  notions  as 
to  the  best  way  of  attaining  them  were  singular- 
ly divergent ;  so  that  it  came  about  that  eleven 
commissioners  made  seven  reports.  There  was 
one  main  majority  report  and  six  minor  reports, 
which  differed  more  or  less  from  it,  chiefly  as  to 
the  best  method  of  attaining  these  two  objects. 

The  majority  report  recommended  the  adop- 
tion of  what  is  known  as  the  conjoint  scheme. 


XIII      STATE   AND   THE   MEDICAL   PROFESSION     335 

According  to  this  plan  the  power  of  granting  a 
licence  to  practise  is  to  be  taken  away  from  all 
the  existing  bodies,  whether  they  have  done  well 
or  ill,  and  to  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  a  body 
of  delegates  (divisional  boards),  one  for  each  of 
the  three  kingdoms.  The  licence  to  practise  is  to 
be  conferred  by  passing  the  delegate  examination. 
The  licensee  may  afterwards,  if  he  pleases,  go 
before  any  of  the  existing  bodies  and  indulge  in  the 
luxury  of  another  examination  and  the  payment 
of  another  fee  in  order  to  obtain  a  title,  which 
does  not  legally  place  him  in  any  better  position 
than  that  which  he  would  occupy  without  it. 

Under  these  circumstances,  of  course,  the  only 
motive  for  obtaining  the  degree  of  a  University  or 
the  licence  of  a  medical  corporation  would  be  the 
prestige  of  these  bodies.  Hence  the  "  black 
sheep  "  would  certainly  be  deserted,  while  those 
bodies  which  have  acquired  a  reputation  by  doing 
their  duty  would  suffer  less. 

But,  as  the  majority  report  proposes  that  the 
existing  bodies  should  be  compensated  for  any 
loss  they  might  suffer  out  of  the  fees  of  the  ex- 
aminers for  the  State  licence,  the  curious  result 
would  be  brought  about  that  the  profession  of  the 
future  would  be  taxed,  for  all  time,  for  the  purpose 
of  handing  over  to  wholly  irresponsible  bodies  a 
sum,  the  amount  of  which  would  be  large  for 
those  who  had  failed  in  their  duty  and  small  for 
those  who  had  done  it. 


336     STATE   AND   THE  MEDICAL   PROFESSION      xm 

The  scheme  in  fact  involved  a  perpetual 
endowment  of  the  "black  sheep,"  calculated  on 
the  maximum  of  their  ill-gained  profits.1  I 
confess  that  I  found  myself  unable  to  assent  to 
a  plan  .which,  in  addition  to  the  rewarding  the 
evil  doers,  proposed  to  take  away  the  privileges 
of  a  number  of  examining  bodies  which  confessedly 
were  doing  their  duty  well,  for  the  sake  of  getting 
rid  of  a  few  who  had  failed.  It  was  too  much 
like  the  Chinaman's  device  of  burning  down  his 
house  to  obtain  a  poor  dish  of  roast  pig — uncertain 
whether  in  the  end  he  might  not  find  a  mere 
mass  of  cinders.  What  we  do  know  is  that  the 
great  majority  of  the  existing  licensing  bodies 
have  marvellously  improved  in  the  course  of  the 
last  twenty  years,  and  are  improving.  What  we 
do  not  know  is  that  the  complicated  scheme  of 
the  divisional  boards  will  ever  be  got  to  work  at 
all. 

My  own  belief  is  that  every  necessary  reform 
may  be  effected,  without  any  interference  with 
vested  interests,  without  any  unjust  interference . 
with  the  prestige  of  institutions  which  have  been, 


1  The  fees  to  be  paid  by  candidates  for  admission  to  the  ex- 
aminations of  the  Divisional  Board  should  be  of  such  an  amount 
as  will  be  sufficient  to  cover  the  cost  of  the  examinations  and 
the  other  expenses  of  the  Divisional  Board,  and  also  to  provide 
the  sum  required  to  compensate  the  medical  authorities,  or  such 
of  them  as  may  be  entitled  to  compensation,  for  any  pecuniary 
losses  they  may  hereafter  sustain  by  reason  of  the  abolition  of  their 
piivilege  of  conferring  a  licence  to  practise.  Report  50,  p.  xii. 


XHI      STATE  AND   THE   MEDICAL   PROFESSION     337 

and  still  are,  extremely  valuable,  without  any 
question  of  compensation  arising,  and  by  an 
extremely  simple  operation.  It  is  only  necessary 
in  fact  to  add  a  couple  of  clauses  to  the  Medical 
Act  to  this  effect :  (1)  That  from  and  after  such  a 
date  no  person  shall  be  placed  upon  the  Medical 
Register  unless  he  possesses  the  threefold  qualifi- 
cation. (2)  That  from  and  after  this  date  no 
examination  shall  be  accepted  as  satisfactory  from 
any  licensing  body  except  such  as  has  been  carried 
on  in  part  by  examiners  appointed  by  the 
licensing  body,  and  in  part  by  coadjutor-examiners 
of  equal  authority  appointed  by  the  Medical 
Council  or  other  central  authority,  and  acting 
under  their  instructions. 

In  laying  down  a  rule  of  this  kind  the  State 
confiscates  nothing,  and  meddles  with  nobody, 
but  simply  acts  within  its  undoubted  right  of 
laying  down  the  conditions  under  which  it  will 
confer  certain  privileges  upon  medical  practi- 
tioners. No  one  can  say  that  the  State  has  not 
the  right  to  do  this;  no  one  can  say  that  the 
State  interferes  with  any  private  enterprise  or 
corporate  interest  unjustly,  in  laying  down  its 
own  conditions  for  its  own  service.  The  plan 
would  have  the  further  advantage  that  all  those 
corporate  bodies  which  have  obtained  (as  many  of 
them  have)  a  great  and  just  prestige  by  the 
admirable  way  in  which  they  have  done  their 
work,  would  reap  their  just  reward  in  the 


338     STATE  AND  THE  MEDICAL  PROFESSION      xill 

thronging  of  students,  thenceforward  as  formerly, 
to  obtain  their  qualifications ;  while  those  who 
have  neglected  their  duties,  who  have  in  some 
one  or  two  cases,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  absolutely 
disgraced  themselves,  would  sink  into  oblivion, 
and  come  to  a  happy  and  natural  euthanasia,  in 
which  their  misdeeds  and  themselves  would  be 
entirely  forgotten. 

Two  of  my  colleagues,  Professor  Turner  and 
Mr.  Bryce,  M.P.,  whose  practical  familiarity  with 
examinations  gave  their  opinions  a  high  value,  ex- 
pressed their  substantial  approval  of  this  scheme, 
and  I  am  unable  to  see  the  weight  of  the  ob- 
jections urged  against  it.  It  is  urged  that  the 
difficulty  and  expense  of  adequately  inspecting 
so  many  examinations  and  of  guaranteeing  their 
efficiency  would  be  great,  and  the  difficulty  in 
the  way  of  a  fair  adjustment  of  the  representation 
of  existing  interests  and  of  the  representation  of 
new  interests  upon  the  general  Medical  Council 
would  be  almost  insuperable. 

The  latter  objection  is  unintelligible  to  me.  I 
am  not  aware  that  any  attempt  at  such  adjustment 
has  been  fairly  discussed,  and  until  that  has  been 
done  it  may  be  well  not  to  talk  about  insuperable 
difficulties.  As  to  the  notion  that  there  is  any 
difficulty  in  getting  the  coadjutor-examiners,  or 
that  the  expense  will  be  overwhelming,  we  have 
the  experience  of  Scotland,  in  which  every  Uni- 
versity does,  at  the  present  time,  appoint  its 


XIII      STATE   AND   THE   MEDICAL   PROFESSION     339 

coadjutor-examiners,  who  do  their  work  just  in 
the  way  proposed. 

Whether  in  the  way  I  have  proposed,  or  by 
the  Conjoint  Scheme,  however,  this  is  perfectly 
certain:  the  two  things  I  refer  to  have  to  be 
done  :  you  must  have  the  threefold  qualification  ; 
you  must  have  the  limitation  of  the  minimum 
qualification  also  ;  and  any  scheme  for  the 
improvement  of  the  relations  of  the  State  to 
medicine  which  does  not  profess  to  do  these  two 
things  thoroughly  and  well,  has  no  chance  of 
finality. 

But  when  these  reforms  are  witnessed,  when 
there  is  a  Medical  Council  armed  with  a  more 
real  authority  than  it  at  present  possesses ;  when 
a  license  to  practice  cannot  be  obtained  without 
the  threefold  qualification;  and  when  an  even 
minimum  of  qualification  is  exacted  for  every 
licence,  is  there  anything  else  that  remains  that 
any  one  seriously  interested  in  the  welfare  of  the 
medical  profession,  as  I  may  most  conscientiously 
declare  myself  to  be,  would  like  to  see  done  ?  I 
think  there  are  three  things. 

In  the  first  place,  even  now,  when  a  four  years' 
curriculum  is  required,  the  time  allotted  for 
medical  education  is  too  brief.  A  young  man  of 
eighteen  beginning  to  study  medicine  is  probably 
absolutely  ignorant  of  the  existence  of  such  a 
thing  as  anatomy,  or  physiology,  or  indeed  of  any 
branch  of  physical  science.  He  comes  into  an 


340     STATE   AND   THE   MEDICAL  PROFESSION      xill 

entirely  new  world  ;  he  addresses  himself  to  a 
kind  of  work  of  which  he  has  not  the  smallest 
experience.  Up  to  that  time  his  work  has  been 
with  books;  he  rushes  suddenly  into  work  with 
things,  which  is  as  different  from  work  with  books 
as  anything  can  well  be.  I  am  quite  sure  that  a 
very  considerable  number  of  young  men  spend  a 
very  large  portion  of  their  first  session  in  simply 
learning  how  to  learn  subjects  which  are  entirely 
new  to  them.  And  yet  recollect  that  in  this 
period  of  four  years  they  have  to  acquire  a 
knowledge  of  all  the  branches  of  a  great  and 
responsible  practical  calling  of  medicine,  surgery, 
obstetrics,  general  pathology,  medical  jurispru- 
dence, and  so  forth.  Anybody  who  knows  what 
these  things  are,  and  who  knows  what  is  the  kind 
of  work  which  is  necessary  to  give  a  man  the 
confidence  which  will  enable  him  to  stand  at  the 
bedside  and  say  to  the  satisfaction  of  his  own 
conscience  what  shall  be  done,  and  what  shall  not 
be  done,  must  be  aware  that  if  a  man  has  only 
four  years  to  do  all  that  in  he  will  not  have  much 
time  to  spare.  But  that  is  not  all.  As  I  have 
said,  the  young  man  comes  up,  probably  ignorant 
of  the  existence  of  science ;  he  has  never  heard  a 
word  of  chemistry,  he  has  never  heard  a  word  of 
physics,  he  has  not  the  smallest  conception  of  the 
outlines  of  biological  science  ;  and  all  these  things 
have  to  be  learned  as  well  and  crammed  into  the 
time  which  in  itself  is  barely  sufficient  to  acquire 


XIII      STATE   AND  THE   MEDICAL  PKOFESSION     341 

a  fair  amount  of  that  knowledge  which  is  requisite 
for  the  satisfactory  discharge  of  his  professional 
duties. 

Therefore  it  is  quite  clear  to  me  that,  somehow 
or  other,  the  curriculum  must  be  lightened.  It 
is  not  that  any  of  the  subjects  which  I  have 
mentioned  need  not  to  be  studied,  and  may  be 
eliminated.  The  only  alternative  therefore  is  to 
lengthen  the  time  given  to  study.  Everybody 
will  agree  with  me  that  the  practical  necessities 
of  life  in  this  country  are  such  that,  for  the 
average  medical  practitioner  at  any  rate,  it  is 
hopeless  to  think  of  extending  the  period  of 
professional  study  beyond  the  age  of  twenty-two. 
So  that  as  the  period  of  study  cannot  be  extended 
forwards,  the  only  thing  to  be  done  is  to  extend 
it  backwards. 

The  question  is  how  this  can  be  done.  My 
own  belief  is  that  if  the  Medical  Council,  instead 
of  insisting  upon  that  examination  in  general 
education  which  I  am  sorry  to  say  I  believe  to  be 
entirely  futile,  were  to  insist  upon  a  knowledge  of 
elementary  physics,  and  chemistry,  and  biology, 
they  would  be  taking  one  of  the  greatest  steps 
which  at  present  can  be  made  for  the  improvement 
of  medical  education.  And  the  improvement 
would  be  this.  The  great  majority  of  the  young 
men  who  are  going  into  the  profession  have 
practically  completed  their  general  education — or 
they  might  very  well  have  done  so — by  the  age 


342    STATE    AND   THE   MEDICAL   PROFESSION      XIII 

of  sixteen  or  seventeen.  If  the  interval  between 
this  age  and  that  at  which  they  commence  their 
purely  medical  studies  were  employed  in  obtaining 
a  practical  acquaintance  with  elementary  physics, 
chemistry,  and  biology,  in  my  judgment  it  would 
be  as  good  as  two  years  added  to  the  course  of 
medical  study.  And  for  two  reasons :  in  the 
first  place,  because  the  subject-matter  of  that 
which  they  would  learn  is  germane  to  their 
future  studies,  and  is  so  much  gained ;  in  the 
second  place,  because  you  might  clear  out  of  the 
course  of  their  professional  study  a  great  deal 
which  at  present  occupies  time  and  attention ; 
and  last,  but  not  least — probably  most — they 
would  then  come  to  their  medical  studies  prepared 
for  that  learning  from  Nature  which  is  what  they 
have  to  do  in  the  course  of  becoming  skilful 
medical  men,  and  for  which  at  present  they  are 
not  in  the  slightest  degree  prepared  by  their 
previous  education. 

The  second  wish  I  have  to  express  concerns 
London  especially,  and  I  may  speak  of  it  briefly 
as  a  more  economical  use  of  the  teaching  power 
in  the  medical  schools.  At  this  present  time 
every  great  hospital  in  London — and  there  are 
ten  or  eleven  of  them — has  its  complete  medical 
school,  in  which  not  only  are  the  branches  of 
practical  medicine  taught,  but  also  those  studies 
in  general  science,  such  as  chemistry,  elementary 
physics,  general  anatomy,  and  a  variety  of  other 


XIII      STATE   AND   THE   MEDICAL   PROFESSION     343 

topics  which  are  what  used  to  be  called  (and  the 
term  was  an  extremely  useful  one)  the  institutes 
of  medicine.  That  was  all  very  well  half  a 
century  ago  ;  it  is  all  very  ill  now,  simply  because 
those  general  branches  of  science,  such  as  anatomy, 
physiology,  chemistry,  physiological  chemistry, 
physiological  physics,  and  so  forth,  have  now 
become  so  large,  and  the  mode  of  teaching  them 
is  so  completely  altered,  that  it  is  absolutely 
impossible  for  any  man  to  be  a  thoroughly 
competent  teacher  of  them,  or  for  any  student  to 
be  effectually  taught  without  the  devotion  of  the 
whole  time  of  the  person  who  is  engaged  in 
teaching.  I  undertake  to  say  that  it  is  hope- 
lessly impossible  for  any  man  at  the  present  time 
to  keep  abreast  with  the  progress  of  physiology 
unless  he  gives  his  whole  mind  to  it;  and  the 
bigger  the  mind  is,  the  more  scope  he  will  find 
for  its  employment.  Again,  teaching  has  become, 
and  must  become  still  more,  practical,  and  that 
also  involves  a  large  expenditure  of  time.  But  if 
a  man  is  to  give  his  whole  time  to  my  business 
he  must  live  by  it,  and  the  resources  of  the 
schools  do  not  permit  them  to  maintain  ten  or 
eleven  physiological  specialists. 

If  the  students  in  their  first  one  or  two  years 
were  taught  the  institutes  of  medicine,  in  two  or 
three  central  institutions,  it  would  be  perfectly 
easy  to  have  those  subjects  taught  thoroughly 
and  effectually  by  persons  who  gave  their  whole 
82 


344     STATE  AND  THE   MEDICAL  PROFESSION      XIII 

mind  and  attention  to  the  subject ;  while  at  the 
same  time  the  medical  schools  at  the  hospitals 
would  remain  what  they  ought  to  be — great 
institutions  in  which  the  largest  possible  oppor- 
tunities are  laid  open  for  acquiring  practical 
acquaintance  with  the  phenomena  of  disease.  So 
that  the  preliminary  or  earlier  half  of  medical 
education  would  take  place  in  the  central  insti- 
tutions, and  the  final  half  would  be  devoted 
altogether  to  practical  studies  in  the  hospitals. 

I  happen  to  know  that  this  conception  has  been 
entertained,  not  only  by  myself,  but  by  a  great 
many  of  those  persons  who  are  most  interested  in 
the  improvement  of  medical  study  for  a  consider- 
able number  of  years.  I  do  not  know  whether 
anything  will  come  of  it  this  half-century  or  not ; 
but  the  thing  has  to  be  done.  It  is  not  a  specula- 
tive notion;  it  lies  patent  to  everybody  who  is 
accustomed  to  teaching,  and  knows  what  the 
necessities  of  teaching  are  ;  and  I  should  very  much 
like  to  see  the  first  step  taken — people  making  up 
their  minds  that  it  has  to  be  done  somehow  or 
other. 

The  last  point  to  which  I  may  advert  is  one 
which  concerns  the  action  of  the  profession  itself 
more  than  anything  else.  We  have  arrangements 
for  teaching,  we  have  arrangements  for  the  testing 
of  qualifications,  we  have  marvellous  aids  and 
appliances  for  the  treatment  of  disease  in  all  sorts 
of  ways ;  but  I  do  not  find  in  London  at  the  present 


XIII      STATE  AND   THE   MEDICAL   PEOFESSION     345 

time,  in  this  little  place  of  four  or  five  million 
inhabitants  which  supports  so  many  things,  any 
organisation  or  any  arrangement  for  advancing  the 
science  of  medicine,  considered  as  a  pure  science. 
I  am  quite  aware  that  there  are  medical  societies 
of  various  kinds  ;  I  am  not  ignorant  of  the  lecture- 
ships at  the  College  of  Physicians  and  the  College 
of  Surgeons ;  there  is  the  Brown  Institute ;  and 
there  is  the  Society  for  the  Advancement  of  Medi- 
cine by  Research,  but  there  is  no  means,  so  far  as 
I  know,  by  which  any  person  who  has  the  inborn 
gifts  of  the  investigator  and  discoverer  of  new 
truth,  and  who  desires  to  apply  that  to  the 
improvement  of  medical  science,  can  carry  out  his 
intention.  In  Paris  there  is  the  University  of 
Paris,  which  gives  degrees ;  but  there  are  also  the 
Sorbonne  and  the  College  de  France,  places  in 
which  professoriates  are  established  for  the  express 
purpose  of  enabling  men  who  have  the  power  of 
investigation,  the  power  of  advancing  knowledge 
and  thereby  reacting  on  practice,  to  do  that  which 
it  is  their  special  mission  to  do.  I  do  not  know  of 
anything  of  the  kind  in  London ;  and  if  it  should 
so  happen  that  a  Claude  Bernard  or  a  Ludwig 
should  turn  up  in  London,  I  really  have  not  the 
slightest  notion  of  what  we  could  do  with  him. 
We  could  not  turn  him  to  account,  and  I  think  we 
should  have  to  export  him  to  Germany  or  France. 
I  doubt  whether  that  is  a  good  or  a  wise  condition 
of  things.  I  do  not  think  it  is  a  condition  of  things 


346     STATE  AND   THE  MEDICAL   PROFESSION      xill 

which  can  exist  for  any  great  length  of  time,  now 
that  people  are  every  day  becoming  more  and  more 
awake  to  the  importance  of  scientific  investigation 
and  to  the  astounding  and  unexpected  manner  in 
which  it  everywhere  reacts  upon  practical  pursuits. 
I  should  look  upon  the  establishment  of  some 
institution  of  that  kind  as  a  recognition  on  the 
part  of  the  medical  profession  in  general,  that  if 
their  great  aod  beneficent  work  is  to  be  carried 
on,  they  must,  like  other  people  who  have  great 
and  beneficent  work  to  do,  contribute  to  the 
advancement  of  knowledge  in  the  only  way  in 
which  experience  shows  that  it  can  be  advanced 


XIV 

THE  CONNECTION  OF  THE  BIOLOGICAL 
SCIENCES  WITH  MEDICINE 

[1881] 

THE  great  body  of  theoretical  and  practical 
knowledge  which  has  been  accumulated  by  the 
labours  of  some  eighty  generations,  since  the  dawn 
of  scientific  thought  in  Europe,  has  no  collective 
English  name  to  which  an  objection  may  not  be 
raised ;  and  I  use  the  term  "  medicine  "  as  that 
which  is  least  likely  to  be  misunderstood ;  though, 
as  every  one  knows,  the  name  is  commonly  applied, 
in  a  narrower  sense,  to  one  of  the  chief  divisions 
of  the  totality  of  medical  science. 

Taken  in  this  broad  sense,  "medicine"  not  merely 
denotes  a  kind  of  knowledge,  but  it  comprehends 
the  various  applications  of  that  knowledge  to  the 
alleviation  of  the  sufferings,  the  repair  of  the 
injuries,  and  the  conservation  of  the  health,  of 


348      BIOLOGICAL  SCIENCES   AND   MEDICINE        xiv 

living  beings.  In  fact,  the  practical  aspect  of  medi- 
cine so  far  dominates  over  every  other,  that  the 
"  Healing  Art  "  is  one  of  its  most  widely-received 
synonyms.  It  is  so  difficult  to  think  of  medicine 
otherwise  than  as  something  which  is  necessarily 
connected  with  curative  treatment,  that  we  are  apt 
to  forget  that  there  must  be,  and  is,  such  a  thing 
as  a  pure  science  of  medicine — a  "  pathology " 
which  has  no  more  necessary  subservience  to  prac- 
tical ends  than  has  zoology  or  botany. 

The  logical  connection  between  this  purely 
scientific  doctrine  of  disease,  or  pathology,  and 
ordinary  biology,  is  easily  traced.  Living  matter 
is  characterised  by  its  innate  tendency  to  exhibit  a 
definite  series  of  the  morphological  and  physio- 
logical phenomena  which  constitute  organisation 
and  life.  Given  a  certain  range  of  conditions,  and 
these  phenomena  remain  the  same,  within  narrow 
limits,  for  each  kind  of  living  thing.  They  furnish 
the  normal  and  typical  character  of  the  species, 
and,  as  such,  they  are  the  subject-matter  of 
ordinary  biology. 

Outside  the  range  of  these  conditions,  the  normal 
course  of  the  cycle  of  vital  phenomena  is  disturbed  ; 
abnormal  structure  makes  its  appearance,  or  the 
proper  character  and  mutual  adjustment  of  the 
functions  cease  to  be  preserved.  The  extent  and 
the  importance  of  these  deviations  from  the  typical 
life  may  vary  indefinitely.  They  may  have  no 
noticeable  influence  on  the  general  well-being  of 


XIV       BIOLOGICAL   SCIENCES   AND   MEDICINE      349 

the  economy,  or  they  may  favour  it.  On  the  other 
hand,  they  may  be  of  such  a  nature  as  to  impede 
the  activities  of  the  organism,  or  even  to  involve 
its  destruction. 

In  the  first  case,  these  perturbations  are  ranged 
under  the  wide  and  somewhat  vague  category  of 
"  variations"  ;in  the  second,  they  are  called  lesions, 
states  of  poisoning,  or  diseases ;  and,  as  morbid 
states,  they  lie  within  the  province  of  pathology. 
No  sharp  line  of  demarcation  can  be  drawn  between 
the  two  classes  of  phenomena.  No  one  can  say 
where  anatomical  variations  end  and  tumours  begin, 
nor  where  modification  of  function,  which  may  at 
first  promote  health,  passes  into  disease.  All  that 
can  be  said  is,  that  whatever  change  of  structure 
or  function  is  hurtful  belongs  to  pathology.  Hence 
it  is  obvious  that  pathology  is  a  branch  of  biology ; 
it  is  the  morphology,  the  physiology,  the  distribu- 
tion, the  aetiology  of  abnormal  life. 

However  obvious  this  conclusion  may  be  now,  it 
was  nowise  apparent  in  the  infancy  of  medicine. 
For  it  is  a  peculiarity  of  the  physical  sciences 
that  they  are  independent  in  proportion  as  they 
are  imperfect ;  and  it  is  only  as  they  advance  that 
the  bonds  which  really  unite  them  all  become 
apparent.  Astronomy  had  no  manifest  connection 
with  terrestrial  physics  before  the  publication  of 
the  "  Principia  "  ;  that  of  chemistry  with  physics 
is  of  still  more  modern  revelation  ;  that  of  physics 
and  chemistry  with  physiology,  has  been  stoutly 


350      BIOLOGICAL  SCIENCES   AND   MEDICINE        XIV 

denied  within  the  recollection  of  most  of  us.  and 
perhaps  still  may  be. 

Or,  to  take  a  case  which  affords  a  closer  parallel 
with  that  of  medicine.  Agriculture  has  been 
cultivated  from  the  earliest  times;  and,  from  a 
remote  antiquity,  men  have  attained  considerable 
practical  skill  in  the  cultivation  of  the  useful 
plants,  and  have  empirically  established  many 
scientific  truths  concerning  the  conditions  under 
which  they  flourish.  But,  it  is  within  the  memory 
of  many  of  us,  that  chemistry  on  the  one  hand, 
and  vegetable  physiology  on  the  other,  attained  a 
stage  of  development  such  that  they  were  able  to 
furnish  a  sound  basis  for  scientific  agriculture. 
Similarly,  medicine  took  its  rise  in  the  practical 
needs  of  mankind.  At  first,  studied  without 
reference  to  any  other  branch  of  knowledge,  it 
long  maintained,  indeed  still  to  some  extent 
maintains,  that  independence.  Historically,  its 
connection  with  the  biological  sciences  has  been 
slowly  established,  and  the  full  extent  and  inti- 
macy of  that  connection  are  only  now  beginning 
to  be  apparent.  I  trust  I  have  not  been  mistaken 
in  supposing  that  an  attempt  to  give  a  brief 
sketch  of  the  steps  by  which  a  philosophical . 
necessity  has  become  an  historical  reality,  may 
not  be  devoid  of  interest,  possibly  of  instruction, 
to  the  members  of  this  great  Congress,  profoundly 
interested  as  all  are  in  the  scientific  development 
of  medicine. 


XIV        BIOLOGICAL   SCIENCES   AND   MEDICINE      351 

The  history  of  medicine  is  more  complete  and 
fuller  than  that  of  any  other  science,  except,  per- 
haps, astronomy;  and,  if  we  follow  back  the  long 
record  as  far  as  clear  evidence  lights  us,  we  find 
ourselves  taken  to  the  early  stages  of  the  civilisa- 
tion of  Greece.  The  oldest  hospitals  were  the 
temples  of  ^Esculapius;  to  these  Asclepeia, 
always  erected  on  healthy  sites,  hard  by  fresh 
springs  and  surrounded  by  shady  groves,  the  sick 
and  the  maimed  resorted  to  seek  the  aid  of  the 
god  of  health.  Votive  tablets  or  inscriptions 
recorded  the  symptoms,  no  less  than  the  gratitude, 
of  those  who  were  healed  ;  and,  from  these  primi- 
tive clinical  records,  the  half-priestly,  half-philo- 
sophic caste  of  the  Asclepiads  compiled  the  data 
upon  which  the  earliest  generalisations  of 
medicine,  as  an  inductive  science,  were  based. 

In  this  state,  pathology,  like  all  the  inductive 
sciences  at  their  origin,  was  merely  natural 
history ;  it  registered  the  phenomena  of  disease, 
classified  them,  and  ventured  upon  a  prognosis, 
wherever  the  observation  of  constant  co-existences 
and  sequences  suggested  a  rational  expectation 
of  the  like  recurrence  under  similar  circum- 
stances. 

Further  than  this  it  hardly  went.  In  fact,  in 
the  then  state  of  knowledge,  and  in  the  condition 
of  philosophical  speculation  at  that  time,  neither 
the  causes  of  the  morbid  state,  nor  the  rationale 
of  treatment,  were  likely  to  be  sought  for  as  we 


352      BIOLOGICAL   SCIENCES   AND   MEDICINE        XIV 

seek  for  them  now.  The  anger  of  a  god  was  a 
sufficient  reason  for  the  existence  of  a  malady,  and 
a  dream  ample  warranty  for  therapeutic  measures; 
that  a  physical  phenomenon  must  needs  have  a 
physical  cause  was  not  the  implied  or  expressed 
axiom  that  it  is  to  us  moderns. 

The  great  man  whose  name  is  inseparably 
connected  with  the  foundation  of  medicine,  Hip- 
pocrates, certainly  knew  very  little,  indeed  prac- 
tically nothing,  of  anatomy  or  physiology  ;  and  he 
would,  probably,  have  been  perplexed  even  to 
imagine  the  possibility  of  a  connection  between 
the  zoological  studies  of  his  contemporary 
Democritus  and  medicine.  Nevertheless,  in  so 
far  as  he,  and  those  who  worked  before  and 
after  him,  in  the  same  spirit,  ascertained,  as 
matters  of  experience,  that  a  wound,  or  a  luxa- 
tion, or  a  fever,  presented  such  and  such  symptoms, 
and  that  the  return  of  the  patient  to  health  was 
facilitated  by  such  and  such  measures,  they  es- 
tablished laws  of  nature,  and  began  the  construc- 
tion of  the  science  of  pathology.  All  true  science 
begins  with  empiricism — though  all  true  science 
is  such  exactly,  in  so  far  as  it  strives  to  pass  out 
of  the  empirical  stage  into  that  of  the  deduction 
of  empirical  from  more  general  truths.  Thus,  it  is 
not  wonderful,  that  the  early  physicians  had  little 
or  nothing  to  do  with  the  development  of  bio- 
logical science ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the 
early  biologists  did  not  much  concern  themselves 


XIV        BIOLOGICAL   SCIENCES   AND   MEDICINE      353 

with  medicine.  There  is  nothing  to  show  that  the 
Asclepiads  took  any  prominent  share  in  the  work 
of  founding  anatomy,  physiology,  zoology,  and 
botany.  Rather  do  these  seem  to  have  sprang 
from  the  early  philosophers,  who  were  essentially 
natural  philosophers,  animated  by  the  character- 
istically Greek  thirst  for  knowledge  as  such. 
Pythagoras,  Alcmeon,  Democritus,  Diogenes  of 
Apollonia,  are  all  credited  with  anatomical  and 
physiological  investigations ;  and,  though  Aristotle 
is  said  to  have  belonged  to  an  Asclepiad  family, 
and  not  improbably  owed  his  taste  for  anatomical 
and  zoological  inquiries  to  the  teachings  of  his 
father,  the  physician  Nicomachus,  the  "  Historia 
Animalium,"  and  the  treatise  "  De  Partibus 
Animalium,"  are  as  free  from  any  allusion  to  me- 
dicine as  if  they  had  issued  from  a  modern  biolo- 
gical laboratory. 

It  may  be  added,  that  it  is  not  easy  to  see  in 
what  way  it  could  have  benefited  a  physician  of 
Alexander's  time  to  know  all  that  Aristotle  knew 
on  these  subjects.  His  human  anatomy  was  too 
rough  to  avail  much  in  diagnosis ;  his  physiology 
was  too  erroneous  to  supply  data  for  pathological 
reasoning.  But  when  the  Alexandrian  school, 
with  Erasistratus  and  Herophilus  at  their  head, 
turned  to  account  the  opportunities  of  studying 
human  structure,  afforded  to  them  by  the 
Ptolemies,  the  value  of  the  large  amount  of 
accurate  knowledge  thus  obtained  to  the  surgeon 


354      BIOLOGICAL   SCIENCES   AND   MEDICINE        XIV 

for  his  operations,  and  to  the  physician  for  his 
diagnosis  of  internal  disorders,  became  obvious,  and 
a  connection  was  established  between  anatomy  and 
medicine,  which  has  ever  become  closer  and  closer. 
Since  the  revival  of  learning,  surgery,  medical 
diagnosis,  and  anatomy  have  gone  hand  in  hand. 
Morgagni  called  his  great  work,  "  De  sedibus  et 
causis  morborum  per  anatomen  indagatis,"  and 
not  only  showed  the  way  to  search  out  the  locali- 
ties and  the  causes  of  disease  by  anatomy,  but 
himself  travelled  wonderfully  far  upon  the  road. 
Bichat,  discriminating  the  grosser  constituents  of 
the  organs  and  parts  of  the  body,  one  from  another, 
pointed  out  the  direction  which  modern  research 
must  take ;  until,  at  length,  histology,  a  science  of 
yesterday,  as  it  seems  to  many  of  us,  has  carried 
the  work  of  Morgagni  as  far  as  the  microscope 
can  take  us,  and  has  extended  the  realm  of 
pathological  anatomy  to  the  limits  of  the  invisible 
world. 

Thanks  to  the  intimate  alliance  of  morphology 
with  medicine,  the  natural  history  of  disease  has, 
at  the  present  day,  attained  a  high  degree  of 
perfection.  Accurate  regional  anatomy  has  ren- 
dered practicable  the  exploration  of  the  most 
hidden  parts  of  the  organism,  and  the  determina- 
tion, during  life,  of  morbid  changes  in  them ; 
anatomical  and  histological  post-mortem  investi- 
gations have  supplied  physicians  with  a  clear 
basis  upon  which  to  rest  the  classification  of 


XIV        BIOLOGICAL  SCIENCES   AND   MEDICINE      oo5 

diseases,  and  with  unerring  tests  of  the  accuracy 
or  inaccuracy  of  their  diagnoses. 

If  men  could  be  satisfied  with  pure  knowledge, 
the  extreme  precision  with  which,  in  these  days, 
a  sufferer  may  be  told  what  is  happening,  and 
what  is  likely  to  happen,  even  in  the  most  recon- 
dite parts  of  his  bodily  frame,  should  be  as  satis- 
factory to  the  patient  as  it  is  to  the  scientific 
pathologist  who  gives  him  the  information.  But 
I  am  afraid  it  is  not;  and  even  the  practising 
physician,  while  nowise  under-estimating  the 
regulative  value  of  accurate  diagnosis,  must  often 
lament  that  so  much  of  his  knowledge  rather 
prevents  him  from  doing  wrong  than  helps  him 
to  do  right. 

A  scorner  of  physic  once  said  that  nature  and 
disease  may  be  compared  to  two  men  fighting,  the 
doctor  to  a  blind  man  with  a  club,  who  strikes  into 
the  m$l4e,  sometimes  hitting  the  disease,  and 
sometimes  hitting  nature.  The  matter  is  not 
mended  if  you  suppose  the  blind  man's  hearing 
to  be  so  acute  that  he  can  register  every  stage  of 
the  struggle,  and  pretty  clearly  predict  how  it 
will  end.  He  had  better  not  meddle  at  all,  until  his 
eyes  are  opened,  until  he  can  see  the  exact  position 
of  the  ctntagonists,  and  make  sure  of  the  effect  of 
his  blows.  But  that  which  it  behoves  the  physician 
to  see,  not,  indeed,  with  his  bodily  eye,  but  with 
clear,  intellectual  vision,  is  a  process,  and  the  chain 
of  causation  involved  in  that  process.  Disease,  as  we 


356      BIOLOGICAL   SCIENCES  AND   MEDICINE       XIV 

have  seen,  is  a  perturbation  of  the  normal  activities 
of  a  living  body,  and  it  is,  and  must  remain,  unin- 
telligible, so  long  as  we  are  ignorant  of  the  nature 
of  these  normal  activities.  In  other  words,  there 
could  be  no  real  science  of  pathology  until  the 
science  of  physiology  had  reached  a  degree  of 
perfection  unattained,  and  indeed  unattainable, 
until  quite  recent  times. 

So  far  as  medicine  is  concerned,  I  am  not  sure 
that  physiology,  such  as  it  was  down  to  the  time 
of  Harvey,  might  as  well  not  have  existed.  Nay, 
it  is  perhaps  no  exaggeration  to  say  that,  within 
the  memory  of  living  men,  justly  renowned 
practitioners  of  medicine  and  surgery  knew  less 
physiology  than  is  now  to  be  learned  from  the 
most  elementary  text-book ;  and,  beyond  a  few 
broad  facts,  regarded  what  they  did  know  as  of 
extremely  little  practical  importance.  Nor  am  I 
disposed  to  blame  them  for  this  conclusion; 
physiology  must  be  useless,  or  worse  than  useless, 
to  pathology,  so  long  as  its  fundamental  concep- 
tions are  erroneous. 

Harvey  is  often  said  to  be  the  founder  of 
modern  physiology ;  and  there  can  be  no  question 
that  the  elucidations  of  the  function  of  the 
heart,  of  the  nature  of  the  pulse,  and  of  the  course 
of  the  blood,  put  forth  in  the  ever-memorable 
little  essay,  "  De  motu  cordis,"  directly  worked  a 
revolution  in  men's  views  of  the  nature  and  of  the 
concatenation  of  some  of  the  most  important 


XIV       BIOLOGICAL  SCIENCES  AND  MEDICINE      357 

physiological  processes  among  the  higher  animals ; 
"while,  indirectly,  their  influence  was  perhaps  even 
more  remarkable. 

But,  though  Harvey  made  this  signal  and  peren- 
nially important  contribution  to  the  physiology  of 
the  moderns,  his  general  conception  of  vital  pro- 
cesses was  essentially  identical  with  that  of  the 
ancients  ;  and,  in  the  "  Exercitationes  de  genera- 
tione,"  and  notably  in  the  singular  chapter  "  De 
calido  innato,"  he  shows  himself  a  true  son  of 
Galen  and  of  Aristotle. 

For  Harvey,  the  blood  possesses  powers  superior 
to  those  of  the  elements ;  it  is  the  seat  of  a  soul 
which  is  not  only  vegetative,  but  also  sensitive 
and  motor.  The  blood  maintains  and  fashions  all 
parts  of  the  body,  "  idque  summa  cum  providentia 
et  intellectu  in  finem  certum  agens,  quasi  ratiocinio 
quodam  uteretur." 

Here  is  the  doctrine  of  the  "  pneuma,"  the  pro- 
duct of  the  philosophical  mould  into  which  the 
animism  of  primitive  men  ran  in  Greece,  in  full 
force.  Nor  did  its  strength  abate  for  long  after 
Harvey's  time.  The  same  ingrained  tendency  of 
the  human  mind  to  suppose  that  a  process  is  ex- 
plained when  it  is  ascribed  to  a  power  of  which 
nothing  is  known  except  that  it  is  the  hypothetical 
agent  of  the  process,  gave  rise,  in  the  next  century, 
to  the  animism  of  Stahl ;  and,  later,  to  the  doctrine 
of  a  vital  principle,  that  "  asylum  ignorantiae  of 
physiologists,  which  has  so  easily  accounted  for 


358      BIOLOGICAL   SCIENCES   AND   MEDICINE       xiv 

everything  and  explained  nothing,  down  to  our 
own  times. 

Now  the  essence  of  modern,  as  contrasted  with 
ancient,  physiological  science  appears  to  me  to 
lie  in  its  antagonism  to  animistic  hypotheses  and 
animistic  phraseology.  It  offers  physical  explana- 
tions of  vital  phenomena,  or  frankly  confesses  that 
it  has  none  to  offer.  And,  so  far  as  I  know,  the 
first  person  who  gave  expression  to  this  modern 
view  of  physiology,  who  was  bold  enough  to 
enunciate  the  proposition  that  vital  phenomena, 
like  all  the  other  phenomena  of  the  physical 
world,  are,  in  ultimate  analysis,  resolvable  into 
matter  and  motion,  was  Ren£  Descartes. 

The  fifty-four  years  of  life  of  this  most  original 
and  powerful  thinker  are  widely  overlapped,  on 
both  sides,  by  the  eighty  of  Harvey,  who  survived 
his  younger  contemporary  by  seven  years,  and  takes 
pleasure  in  acknowledging  the  French  philoso- 
pher's appreciation  of  his  great  discovery. 

In  fact,  Descartes  accepted  the  doctrine  of  the 
circulation  as  propounded  by  "  Harvseus  medecin 
d'Angleterre,"  and  gave  a  full  account  of  it  in  his 
first  work,  the  famous  "  Discours  de  la  Me'thode," 
which  was  published  in  1637,  only  nine  years 
after  the  exercitation  "  De  motu  cordis " ;  and, 
though  differing  from  Harvey  on  some  important 
points  (in  which  it  may  be  noted,  in  passing, 
Descartes  was  wrong  and  Harvey  right),  he  always 
speaks  of  him  with  great  respect.  And  so  impor- 


Xiv        BIOLOGICAL   SCIENCES   AND  MEDICINE      359 

tant  does  the  subject  seem  to  Descartes,  that  he 
returns  to  it  in  the  "  Trait4  des  Passions,"  and  in 
the  "  Trait4  de  1'Homme." 

It  is  easy  to  see  that  Harvey's  work  must  have 
had  a  peculiar  significance  for  the  subtle  thinker, 
to  whom  we  owe  both  the  spiritualistic  and  the 
materialistic  philosophies  of  modern  times.  It  was 
in  the  very  year  of  its  publication,  1628,  that 
Descartes  withdrew  into  that  life  of  solitary 
investigation  and  meditation  of  which  his  phil- 
osophy was  the  fruit.  And,  as  the  course  of  his 
speculations  led  him  to  establish  an  absolute  dis- 
tinction of  nature  between  the  material  and  the 
mental  worlds,  he  was  logically  compelled  to  seek 
for  the  explanation  of  the  phenomena  of  the 
material  world  within  itself ;  and  having  allotted 
the  realm  of  thought  to  the  soul,  to  see  nothing 
but  extension  and  motion  in  the  rest  of  nature. 
Descartes  uses  "  thought "  as  the  equivalent  of  our 
modern  term  "  consciousness."  Thought  is  the 
function  of  the  soul,  and  its  only  function.  Our 
natural  heat  and  all  the  movements  of  the  body, 
says  he,  do  not  depend  on  the  soul.  Death  does 
not  take  place  from  any  fault  of  the  soul,  but  only 
because  some  of  the  principal  parts  of  the  body 
become  corrupted.  The  body  of  a  living  man 
differs  from  that  of  a  dead  man  in  the  same  way 
as  a  watch  or  other  automaton  (that  is  to  say,  a 
machine  which  moves  of  itself)  when  it  is  wound 
up  and  has,  in  itself,  the  physical  principle  of  the 

83 


360      BIOLOGICAL   SCIENCES   AND   MEDICINE       XIV 

movements  which  the  mechanism  is  adapted  to 
perform,  differs  from  the  same  watch,  or  other 
machine,  when  it  is  broken,  and  the  physical 
principle  of  its  movement  no  longer  exists.  All 
the  actions  which  are  common  to  us  and  the  lower 
animals  depend  only  on  the  conformation  of  our 
organs,  and  the  course  which  the  animal  spirits 
take  in  the  brain,  the  nerves,  and  the  muscles ; 
in  the  same  way  as  the  movement  of  a  watch  is 
produced  by  nothing  but  the  force  of  its  spring 
and  the  figure  of  its  wheels  and  other  parts. 

Descartes'  "  Treatise  on  Man  "  is  a  sketch  of 
human  physiology,  in  which  a  bold  attempt  is 
made  to  explain  all  the  phenomena  of  life,  except 
those  of  consciousness,  by  physical  reasonings.  To 
a  mind  turned  in  this  direction,  Harvey's  exposition 
of  the  heart  and  vessels  as  a  hydraulic  mechanism 
must  have  been  supremely  welcome. 

Descartes  was  not  a  mere  philosophical  theorist, 
but  a  hardworking  dissector  and  experimenter, 
and  he  held  the  strongest  opinion  respecting  the 
practical  value  of  the  new  conception  which  he 
was  introducing.  He  speaks  of  the  importance  of 
preserving  health,  and  of  the  dependence  of  the 
mind  on  the  body  being  so  close  that,  perhaps,  the 
only  way  of  making  men  wiser  and  better  than 
they  are,  is  to  be  sought  in  medical  science.  "  It 
is  true/'  says  he, "  that  as  medicine  is  now  practised 
it  contains  little  that  is  very  useful ;  but  without 
any  desire  to  depreciate,  I  am  sure  that  there  is 


XIV       BIOLOGICAL   SCIENCES   AND  MEDICINE      361 

no  one,  even  among  professional  men,  who  will 
not  declare  that  all  we  know  is  very  little  as  com- 
pared with  that  which  remains  to  be  known ;  and 
that  we  might  escape  an  infinity  of  diseases  of  the 
mind,  no  less  than  of  the  body,  and  even  perhaps 
from  the  weakness  of  old  age,  if  we  had  sufficient 
knowledge  of  their  causes,  and  of  all  the  remedies 
with  which  nature  has  provided  us." x  So  strongly 
impressed  was  Descartes  with  this,  that  he  resolved 
to  spend  the  rest  of  his  life  in  trying  to  acquire 
such  a  knowledge  of  nature  as  would  lead  to  the 
construction  of  a  better  medical  doctrine.2  The 
anti-Cartesians  found  material  for  cheap  ridicule 
in  these  aspirations  of  the  philosopher ;  and  it  is 
almost  needless  to  say  that,  in  the  thirteen  years 
which  elapsed  between  the  publication  of  the 
"  Discours  "  and  the  death  of  Descartes,  he  did  not 
contribute  much  to  their  realisation.  But,  for  the 
next  century,  all  progress  in  physiology  took  place 
along  the  lines  which  Descartes  laid  down. 

The  greatest  physiological  and  pathological  work 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  Borelli's  treatise  "  De 
Motu  Animalium,"  is,  to  all  intents  and  purposes, 
a  development  of  Descartes'  fundamental  concep- 
tion ;  and  the  same  may  be  said  of  the  physiology 
and  pathology  of  Boerhaave,  whose  authority 
dominated  in  the  medical  world  of  the  first  half 
of  the  eighteenth  century. 

1  Discours  de  la  Mtthode,  6a  partie,  Ed.  Cousin,  p.  193. 
>  Ibid.  pp.  193  and  211. 


362      BIOLOGICAL   SCIENCES   AND   MEDICINE        XIV 

With  the  origin  of  modern  chemistry,  and  of 
electrical  science,  in  the  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  aids  in  the  analysis  of  the  phenomena  of 
life,  of  which  Descartes  could  not  have  dreamed, 
were  offered  to  the  physiologist.  And  the  greater 
part  of  the  gigantic  progress  which  has  been  made 
in  the  present  century  is  a  justification  of  the 
prevision  of  Descartes.  For  it  consists,  essentially, 
in  a  more  and  more  complete  resolution  of  the 
grosser  organs  of  the  living  body  into  physico- 
chemical  mechanisms. 

"  I  -shall  try  to  explain  our  whole  bodily  machin- 
ery in  such  a  way,  that  it  will  be  no  more  necessary 
for  us  to  suppose  that  the  soul  produces  such  move- 
ments as  are  not  voluntary,  than  it  is  to  think  that 
there  is  in  a  clock  a  soul  which  causes  it  to  show 
the  hours."  l  These  words  of  Descartes  might  be 
appropriately  taken  as  a  motto  by  the  author  of 
any  modern  treatise  on  physiology. 

But  though,  as  I  think,  there  is  no  doubt  that 
Descartes  was  the  first  to  propound  the  funda- 
mental conception  of  the  living  body  as  a  physical 
mechanism,  which  is  the  distinctive  feature  of 
modern,  as  contrasted  with  ancient  physiology,  he 
was  misled  by  the  natural  temptation  to  carry 
out,  in  all  its  details,  a  parallel  between  the 
machines  with  which  he  was  familiar,  such  as 
clocks  and  pieces  of  hydraulic  apparatus,  and  the 
living  machine.  In  all  such  machines  there  is  a 
1  Be  la  Formation  du  Fwtus. 


XIV       BIOLOGICAL  SCIENCES  AND  MEDICINE      363 

central  source  of  power,  and  the  parts  of  the 
machine  are  merely  passive  distributors  of  that 
power.  The  Cartesian  school  conceived  of  the 
living  body  as  a  machine  of  this  kind ;  and  herein 
they  might  have  learned  from  Galen,  who,  what- 
ever ill  use  he  may  have  made  of  the  doctrine  of 
"natural  faculties/'  nevertheless  had  the  great 
merit  of  perceiving  that  local  forces  play  a  great 
part  in  physiology. 

The  same  truth  was  recognised  by  Glisson,  but 
it  was  first  prominently  brought  forward  in  the 
Hallerian  doctrine  of  the  "  vis  insita  "  of  muscles. 
If  muscle  can  contract  without  nerve,  there  is  an 
end  of  the  Cartesian  mechanical  explanation  of 
its  contraction  by  the  influx  of  animal  spirits. 

The  discoveries  of  Trembley  tended  in  the 
same  direction.  In  the  freshwater  Hydra,  no 
trace  was  to  be  found  of  that  complicated 
machinery  upon  which  the  performance  of  the 
functions  in  the  higher  animals  was  supposed  to 
depend.  And  yet  the  hydra  moved,  fed,  grew, 
multiplied,  and  its  fragments  exhibited  all  the 
powers  of  the  whole.  And,  finally,  -the  work  of 
Caspar  F.  Wolff,1  by  demonstrating  the  fact  that 
the  growth  and  development  of  both  plants  and 
animals  take  place  antecedently  to  the  existence 
of  their  grosser  organs,  and  are,  in  fact,  the  causes 
and  not  the  consequences  of  organisation  (as 
then  understood),  sapped  the  foundations  of  the 
1  Theoria  Generationis,  1759. 


864      BIOLOGICAL   SCIENCES   AND   MEDICINE       xr? 

Cartesian  physiology  as  a  complete  expression  of 
vital  phenomena. 

For  Wolff,  the  physical  basis  of  life  is  a  fluid, 
possessed  of  a  "  vis  essentialis  "  and  a  "  solidesci- 
bilitas,"  in  virtue  of  which  it  gives  rise  to 
organisation;  and,  as  he  points  out,  this  con- 
clusion strikes  at  the  root  of  the  whole  iatro- 
mechanical  system, 

In  this  country,  the  great  authority  of  John 
Hunter  exerted  a  similar  influence ;  though  it 
must  be  admitted  that  the  too  sibylline  utterances 
which  are  the  outcome  of  Hunter's  struggles  to 
define  his  conceptions  are  often  susceptible  of 
more  than  one  interpretation.  Nevertheless,  on 
some  points  Hunter  is  clear  enough.  For  example, 
he  is  of  opinion  that  "  Spirit  is  only  a  property 
of  matter "  ("  Introduction  to  Natural  History," 
p.  6),  he  is  prepared  to  renounce  animism,  (I.e.  p. 
8),  and  his  conception  of  life  is  so  completely 
physical  that  he  thinks  of  it  as  something  which 
can  exist  in  a  state  of  combination  in  the  food. 
"  The  aliment  we  take  in  has  in  it,  in  a  fixed 
state,  the  real  life ;  and  this  does  not  become 
active  until  it  has  got  into  the  lungs  ;  for  there  it 
is  freed  from  its  prison  "  ("  Observations  on  Phy- 
siology/' p.  113).  He  also  thinks  that  "It  is 
more  in  accord  with  the  general  principles  of  the 
animal  machine  to  suppose  that  none  of  its  effects 
are  produced  from  any  mechanical  principle 
whatever ;  and  that  every  effect  is  produced  from 


XIV       BIOLOGICAL   SCIENCES  AND  MEDICINE      865 

an  action  in  the  part ;  which  action  is  produced 
by  a  stimulus  upon  the  part  which  acts,  or  upon 
some  other  part  with  which  this  part  sympathises 
so  as  to  take  up  the  whole  action  "  (I.e.  p.  152). 

And  Hunter  is  as  clear  as  Wolff,  with  whose 
work  he  was  probably  unacquainted,  that  "what- 
ever life  is,  it  most  certainly  does  not  depend 
upon  structure  or  organisation"  (I.e.  p.  114). 

Of  course  it  is  impossible  that  Hunter  could 
have  intended  to  deny  the  existence  of  purely 
mechanical  operations  in  the  animal  body.  But 
while,  with  Borelli  and  Boerhaave,  he  looked 
upon  absorption,  nutrition,  and  secretion  as 
operations  effected  by  means  of  the  small  vessels, 
he  differed  from  the  mechanical  physiologists, 
who  regarded  these  operations  as  the  result  of 
the  mechanical  properties  of  the  small  vessels, 
such  as  the  size,  form,  and  disposition  of  their 
canals  and  apertures.  Hunter,  on  the  contrary, 
considers  them  to  be  the  effect  of  properties  of 
these  vessels  which  are  not  mechanical  but  vital. 
"  The  vessels,"  says  he,  "  have  more  of  the  polypus 
in  them  than  any  other  part  of  the  body,"  and  he 
talks  of  the  "  living  and  sensitive  principles  of  the 
arteries,"  and  even  of  the  "  dispositions  or  feelings 
of  the  arteries."  "  When  the  blood  is  good  and 
genuine  the  sensations  of  the  arteries,  or  the 
dispositions  for  sensation,  are  agreeable.  ...  It 
is  then  they  dispose  of  the  blood  to  the  best 
advantage,  increasing  the  growth  of  the  whole, 


366      BIOLOGICAL   SCIENCES  AND  MEDICINE       XIV 

supplying  any  losses,  keeping  up  a  due  succession, 
etc/'  (I.e.  p.  133). 

If  we  follow  Hunter's  conceptions  to  their 
logical  issue,  the  life  of  one  of  the  higher  animals 
is  essentially  the  sum  of  the  lives  of  all  the 
vessels,  each  of  which  is  a  sort  of  physiological 
unit,  answering  to  a  polype  ;  and,  as  health  is  the 
result  of  the  normal  "  action  of  the  vessels,"  so  is 
disease  an  effect  of  their  abnormal  action.  Hunter 
thus  stands  in  thought,  as  in  time,  midway  between 
Borelli  on  the  one  hand,  and  Bichat  on  the  other. 

The  acute  founder  of  general  anatomy,  in  fact, 
outdoes  Hunter  in  his  desire  to  exclude  physical 
reasonings  from  the  realm  of  life.  Except  in  the 
interpretation  of  the  action  of  the  sense  organs, 
he  will  not  allow  physics  to  have  anything  to  do 
with  physiology. 

"  To  apply  the  physical  sciences  to  physiology 
is  to  explain  the  phenomena  of  living  bodies  by 
the  laws  of  inert  bodies.  Now  this  is  a  false 
principle,  hence  all  its  consequences  are  marked 
with  the  same  stamp.  Let  us  leave  to  chemistry 
its  affinity ;  to  physics,  its  elasticity  and  its  gravity. 
Let  us  invoke  for  physiology  only  sensibility  and 
contractility." * 

Of  all  the  unfortunate  dicta  of  men  of  eminent 

ability  this  seems  one  of  the  most  unhappy,  when 

we  think  of  what  the  application  of  the  methods 

and  the  data  of  physics  and  chemistry  has  done 

^Aiiatomie  gin^rale^  i.  p.  liv. 


XIV       BIOLOGICAL   SCIENCES   AND   MEDICINE      367 

towards  bringing  physiology  into  its  present  state. 
It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  one-half  of  a 
modern  text-book  of  physiology  consists  of  applied 
physics  and  chemistry ;  and  that  it  is  exactly  in 
the  exploration  of  the  phenomena  of  sensibility 
and  contractility  that  physics  and  chemistry  have 
exerted  the  most  potent  influence. 

Nevertheless,  Bichat  rendered  a  solid  service  to 
physiological  progress  by  insisting  upon  the  fact 
that  what  we  call  life,  in  one  of  the  higher  animals, 
.  is  not  an  indivisible  unitary  archseus  dominating, 
from  its  central  seat,  the  parts  of  the  organism, 
but  a  compound  result  of  the  synthesis  of  the 
separate  lives  of  those  parts. 

"  All  animals,"  says  he,  "  are  assemblages  of 
different  organs,  each  of  which  performs  its 
function  and  concurs,  after  its  fashion,  in  the 
preservation  of  the  whole.  They  are  so  many 
special  machines  in  the  general  machine  which 
constitutes  the  individual.  But  each  of  these 
special  machines  is  itself  compounded  of  many 
tissues  of  very  different  natures,  which  in  truth 
constitute  the  elements  of  those  organs  "  (I.e.  Ixxix.). 
"  The  conception  of  a  proper  vitality  is  applicable 
only  to  these  simple  tissues,  and  not  to  the  organs 
themselves  "  (I.e.  Ixxxiv.). 

And  Bichat  proceeds  to  make  the  obvious 
application  of  this  doctrine  of  synthetic  life,  if  I 
may  so  call  it,  to  pathology.  Since  diseases  are 
only  alterations  of  vital  properties,  and  the 


368      BIOLOGICAL   SCIENCES   AND   MEDICINE       xiv 

properties  of  each  tissue  are  distinct  from  those  of 
the  rest,  it  is  evident  that  the  diseases  of  each 
tissue  must  be  different  from  those  of  the  rest. 
Therefore,  in  any  organ  composed  of  different 
tissues,  one  may  be  diseased  and  the  other  remain 
healthy ;  and  this  is  what  happens  in  most  cases 
(I.e.  Ixxxv.). 

In  a  spirit  of  true  prophecy,  Bichat  says,  "  We 
have  arrived  at  an  epoch  in  which  pathological 
anatomy  should  start  afresh."  For,  as  the  analysis 
of  the  organs  had  led  him  to  the  tissues  as  the 
physiological  units  of  the  organism;  so,  in  a 
succeeding  generation,  the  analysis  of  the  tissues 
led  to  the  cell  as  the  physiological  element  of  the 
tissues.  The  contemporaneous  study  of  develop- 
ment brought  out  the  same  result;  and  the 
zoologists  and  botanists,  exploring  the  simplest 
and  the  lowest  forms  of  animated  beings,  confirmed 
the  great  induction  of  the  cell  theory.  Thus  the 
apparently  opposed  views,  which  have  been 
battling  with  one  another  ever  since  the  middle 
of  the  last  century,  have  proved  to  be  each  half 
the  truth. 

The  proposition  of  Descartes  that  the  body  of  a 
living  man  is  a  machine,  the  actions  of  which  are 
explicable  by  the  known  laws  of  matter  and 
motion,  is  unquestionably  largely  true.  But  it  is 
also  true,  that  the  living  body  is  a  synthesis  of 
innumerable  physiological  elements,  each  of  which 
may  nearly  be  described,  in  Wolff's  words,  as  a 


XIV       BIOLOGICAL   SCIENCES  AND   MEDICINE      369 

fluid  possessed  of  a  "vis  essentialis "  and  a 
"  solidescibilitas "  ;  or,  in  modern  phrase,  as 
protoplasm  susceptible  of  structural  metamorphosis 
and  functional  metabolism:  and  that  the  only 
machinery,  in  the  precise  sense  in  which  the 
Cartesian  school  understood  mechanism,  is,  that 
which  co-ordinates  and  regulates  these  physio- 
logical units  into  an  organic  whole. 

In  fact,  the  body  is  a  machine  of  the  nature 
of  an  army,  not  of  that  of  a  watch  or  of  a 
hydraulic  apparatus.  Of  this  army  each  cell  is 
a  soldier,  an  organ  a  brigade,  the  central  nervous 
system  headquarters  and  field  telegraph,  the  ali- 
mentary and  circulatory  system  the  commissariat. 
Losses  are  made  good  by  recruits  born  in  camp, 
and  the  life  of  the  individual  is  a  campaign, 
conducted  successfully  for  a  number  of  years,  but 
with  certain  defeat  in  the  long  run. 

The  efficacy  of  an  army,  at  any  given  moment, 
depends  on  the  health  of  the  individual  soldier, 
and  on  the  perfection  of  the  machinery  by  which 
he  is  led  and  brought  into  action  at  the  proper 
time ;  and,  therefore,  if  the  analogy  holds  good, 
there  can  be  only  two  kinds  of  diseases,  the  one 
dependent  on  abnormal  states  of  the  physiologi- 
cal units,  the  other  on  perturbations  of  their 
co-ordinating  and  alimentative  machinery. 

Hence,  the  establishment  of  the  cell  theory,  in 
normal  biology,  was  swiftly  followed  by  a  "  cellular 
pathology,"  as  its  logical  counterpart.  I  need  not 
remind  you  how  great  an  instrument  of  investiga- 


870      BIOLOGICAL   SCIENCES   AND   MEDICINE        XIV 

tion  this  doctrine  has  proved  in  the  hands  of  the 
man  of  genius  to  whom  its  development  is  due, 
and  who  would  probably  be  the  last  to  forget  that 
abnormal  conditions  of  the  co-ordinative  and 
distributive  machinery  of  the  body  are  no  less 
important  factors  of  disease. 

Henceforward,  as  it  appears  to  me,  the  connec- 
tion of  medicine  with  the  biological  sciences  is 
clearly  indicated.  Pure  pathology  is  that  branch  of 
biology  which  defines  the  particular  perturbation 
of  cell-life,  or  of  the  co-ordinating  machinery,  or  of 
both,  on  which  the  phenomena  of  disease  depend. 

Those  who  are  conversant  with  the  present 
state  of  biology  will  hardly  hesitate  to  admit  that 
the  conception  of  the  life  of  one  of  the  higher 
animals  as  the  summation  of  the  lives  of  a  cell 
aggregate,  brought  into  harmonious  action  by  a 
co-ordinative  machinery  formed  by  some  of  these 
cells,  constitutes  a  permanent  acquisition  of 
physiological  science.  But  the  last  form  of  the 
battle  between  the  animistic  and  the  physical 
views  of  life  is  seen  in  the  contention  whether  the 
physical  analysis  of  vital  phenomena  can  be  carried 
beyond  this  point  or  not. 

There  are  some  to  whom  living  protoplasm  is 
a  substance,  even  such  as  Harvey  conceived  the 
blood  to  be,  "  summa  cum  providentia  et  intellectu 
in  finem  certum  agens,  quasi  ratiocinio  quodam  ;  " 
and  who  look  with  as  little  favour  as  Bichat  did, 
upon  any  attempt  to  apply  the  principles  and  the 
methods  of  physics  and  chemistry  to  the 


Xiv        BIOLOGICAL   SCIENCES   AND   MEDICINE      371 

investigation  of  the  vital  processes  of  growth, 
metabolism,  and  contractility.  They  stand  upon 
the  ancient  ways ;  only,  in  accordance  with  that 
progress  towards  democracy,  which  a  great 
political  writer  has  declared  to  be  the  fatal  charac- 
teristic of  modern  times,  they  substitute  a  republic 
formed  by  a  few  billion  of  "  animulsa  "  for  the 
monarchy  of  the  all-pervading  "  anima." 

Others,  on  the  contrary,  supported  by  a  robust 
faith  in  the  universal  applicability  of  the  principles 
laid  down  by  Descartes,  and  seeing  that  the  actions 
called  "  vital  "  are,  so  far  as  we  have  any  means  of 
knowing,  nothing  but  changes  of  place  of  particles 
of  matter,  look  to  molecular  physics  to  achieve 
the  analysis  of  the  living  protoplasm  itself  into  a 
molecular  mechanism.  If  there  is  any  truth  in 
the  received  doctrines  of  physics,  that  contrast 
between  living  and  inert  matter,  on  which  Bichat 
lays  so  much  stress,  does  not  exist.  In  nature, 
nothing  is  at  rest,  nothing  is  amorphous  ;  the 
simplest  particle  of  that  which  men  in  their 
blindness  are  pleased  to  call  "  brute  matter  "  is  a 
vast  aggregate  of  molecular  mechanisms  performing 
complicated  movements  of  immense  rapidity,  and 
sensitively  adjusting  themselves  to  every  change 
in  the  surrounding  world.  Living  matter  differs 
from  other  matter  in  degree  and  not  in  kind  ;  the 
microcosm  repeats  the  macrocosm  ;  and  one  chain 
of  causation  connects  the  nebulous  original  of  suns 
and  planetary  systems  with  the  protoplasmic 
foundation  of  life  and  organisation. 


372      BIOLOGICAL   SCIENCES   AND   MEDICINE        XIV 

From  this  point  of  view,  pathology  is  the 
analogue  of  the  theory  of  perturbations  in  astron- 
omy; and  therapeutics  resolves  itself  into  the 
discovery  of  the  means  by  which  a  system  of  forces 
competent  to  eliminate  any  given  perturbation  may 
be  introduced  into  the  economy.  And,  as  pathology 
bases  itself  upon  normal  physiology,  so  therapeut- 
ics rests  upon  pharmacology ;  which  is,  strictly 
speaking,  a  part  of  the  great  biological  topic  of 
the  influence  of  conditions  on  the  living  organism, 
and  has  no  scientific  foundation  apart  from 
physiology. 

It  appears  to  me  that  there  is  no  more  hopeful 
indication  of  the  progress  of  medicine  towards  the 
ideal  of  Descartes  than  is  to  be  derived  from  a  com- 
parison of  the  state  of  pharmacology,  at  the  present 
day,  with  that  which  existed  forty  years  ago.  If 
we  consider  the  knowledge  positively  acquired,  in 
this  short  time,  of  the  modus  operandi  of  urari,  of 
atropia,  of  physostigmin,  of  veratria,  of  casca,  of 
strychnia,  of  bromide  of  potassium,  of  phosphorus, 
there  can  surely  be  no  ground  for  doubting  that, 
sooner  or  later,  the  pharmacologist  will  supply  the 
physician  with  the  means  of  affecting,  in  any 
desired  sense,  the  functions  of  any  physiological 
element  of  the  body.  It  will,  in  short,  become 
possible  to  introduce  into  the  economy  a  molecular 
mechanism  which,  like  a  very  cunningly-contrived 
torpedo,  shall  find  its  way  to  some  particular  group 
of  living  elements,  and  cause  an  explosion  among 
them,  leaving  the  rest  untouched. 


XIV       BIOLOGICAL   SCIENCES  AND  MEDICINE      373 

The  search  for  the  explanation  of  diseased  states 
in  modified  cell- life ;  the  discovery  of  the  important 
part  played  by  parasitic  organisms  in  the  aetiology 
of  disease  ;  the  elucidation  of  the  action  of  medica- 
ments by  the  methods  and  the  data  of  experimental 
physiology ;  appear  to  me  to  be  the  greatest  steps 
which  have  ever  been  made  towards  the  establish- 
ment of  medicine  on  a  scientific  basis.  I  need 
hardly  say  they  could  not  have  been  made  except 
for  the  advance  of  normal  biology. 

There  can  be  no  question,  then,  as  to  the  nature 
or  the  value  of  the  connection  between  medicine 
and  the  biological  sciences.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
that  the  future  of  pathology  and  of  therapeutics, 
and,  therefore,  that  of  practical  medicine,  depends 
upon  the  extent  to  which  those  who  occupy  them- 
selves with  these  subjects  are  trained  in  the  methods 
and  impregnated  with  the  fundamental  truths  of 
biology. 

And,  in  conclusion,  I  venture  to  suggest  that  the 
collective  sagacity  of  this  congress  could  occupy 
itself  with  no  more  important  question  than  with 
this :  How  is  medical  education  to  be  arranged,  so 
that,  without  entangling  the  student  in  those 
details  of  the  systematist  which  are  valueless  to 
him,  he  may  be  enabled  to  obtain  a  firm  grasp  of 
the  great  truths  respecting  animal  and  vegetable 
life,without  which,  notwithstanding  all  the  progress 
of  scientific  medicine,  he  will  still  find  himself  au 
empiric  ? 


XV 

THE  SCHOOL  BOARDS  :  WHAT  THEY 
CAN  DO,  AND  WHAT  THEY  MAY  DO. 

[1870] 

AN  electioneering  manifesto  would  be  out  of  place 
in  the  pages  of  this  Review  ;  but  any  suspicion  that 
may  arise  in  the  mind  of  the  reader  that  the 
following  pages  partake  of  that  nature,  will  be  dis- 
pelled, if  he  reflect  that  they  cannot  be  published  * 
until  after  the  day  on  which  the  ratepayers  of  the 
metropolis  will  have  decided  which  candidates  for 
seats  upon  the  Metropolitan  School  Board  they 
will  take,  and  which  they  will  leave. 

As  one  of  those  candidates,  I  may  be  permitted 
to  say,  that  I  feel  much  in  the  frame  of  mind  of 
the  Irish  bricklayer's  labourer,  who  bet  another 

1  Notwithstanding  Mr.  Huxley's  intentions,  the  Editor 
took  upon  himself,  in  what  seemed  to  him  to  be  the  public 
interest,  to  send  an  extract  from  this  article  to  the  newspapers 
— before  the  day  of  the  election  of  the  School  Board. — EDITOB 
of  the  Contemporary  Review. 


XV  THE  SCHOOL  BOARDS          375 

that  he  could  not  carry  him  to  the  top  of  the 
ladder  in  his  hod.  The  challenged  hodman  won 
his  wager,  but  as  the  stakes  were  handed  over,  the 
challenger  wistfully  remarked,  "I'd  great  hopes 
of  falling  at  the  third  round  from  the  top."  And, 
in  view  of  the  work  and  the  worry  which  awaits 
the  members  of  the  School  Boards,  I  must  confess 
to  an  occasional  ungrateful  hope  that  the  friends 
who  are  toiling  upwards  with  me  in  their  hod, 
may,  when  they  reach  "  the  third  round  from  the 
top,"  let  me  fall  back  into  peace  and  quietness. 

But  whether  fortune  befriend  me  in  this  rough 
method,  or  not,  I  should  like  to  submit  to  those 
of  whom  I  am  potential,  but  of  whom  I  may  not 
be  an  actual,  colleague,  and  to  others  who  may 
be  interested  in  this  most  important  problem — 
how  to  get  the  Education  Act  to  work  efficiently 
— some  considerations  as  to  what  are  the  duties  of 
the  members  of  the  School  Boards,  and  what  are 
the  limits  of  their  power. 

I  suppose  no  one  will  be  disposed  to  dispute  the 
proposition,  that  the  prime  duty  of  every  member 
of  such  a  Board  is  to  endeavour  to  administer  the 
Act  honestly  ;  or  in  accordance,  not  only  with  its 
letter,  but  with  its  spirit.  And  if  so,  it  would 
seem  that  the  first  step  towards  this  very  desirable 
end  is,  to  obtain  a  clear  notion  of  what  that  letter 
signifies,  and  what  that  spirit  implies  ;  or,  in  other 
words,  what  the  clauses  of  the  Act  are  intended 
to  enjoin  and  to  forbid.  So  that  it  is  really  not 

84 


376         THE  SCHOOL  BOARDS  yv 

admissible,  except  for  factious  and  abusive  pur- 
poses, to  assume  that  any  one  who  endeavours  to 
get  at  this  clear  meaning  is  desirous  only  of  raising 
quibbles  and  making  difficulties.  - 

Reading  the  Act  with  this  desire  to  understand 
it,  I  find  that  its  provisions  may  be  classified,  as 
might  naturally  be  expected,  under  two  heads  : 
the  one  set  relating  to  the  subject-matter  of 
education  ;  the  other  to  the  establishment,  main- 
tenance, and  administration  of  the  schools  in 
which  that  education  is  to  be  conducted. 

Now  it  is  a  most  important  circumstance,  that 
all  the  sections  of  the  Act,  except  four,  belong  to 
the  latter  division ;  that  is,  they  refer  to  mere 
matters  of  administration.  The  four  sections  in 
question  are  the  seventh,  the  fourteenth,  the 
sixteenth,  and  the  ninety-seventh.  Of  these,  the 
seventh,  the  fourteenth,  and  the  ninety-seventh 
deal  with  the  subject-matter  of  education,  while 
the  sixteenth  defines  the  nature  of  the  relations 
which  are  to  exist  between  the  "  Education 
Department "  (an  euphemism  for  the  future 
Minister  of  Education)  and  the  School  Boards. 
It  is  the  sixteenth  clause  which  is  the  most 
important,  and,  in  some  respects,  the  most  remark- 
able of  all.  It  runs  thus  : — 

"  If  the  School  Board  do,  or  permit,  any  act  in  contraven- 
tion of,  or  fail  to  comply  with,  the  regulations,  according  to 
which  a  school  provided  by  them  is  required  by  this  Act  to  be 
conducted,  the  Education  Department  may  declare  the  School 


XV  THE  SCHOOL  BOARDS          377 

Board  to  be,  and  such  Board  shall  accordingly  be  deemed  to  be, 
ard  in  default,  and  the  Education  Department  may  pro- 
ceed  accordingly  ;  and  every  act,  or  omission,  of  any  member 
of  the  School  Board,  or  manager  appointed  by  them,  or  any 
person  under  the  control  of  the  Board,  shall  be  deemed  to  be 
permitted  by  the  Board,  unless  the  contrary  be  proved. 

"  If  any  dispute  arises  as  to  whether  the  School  Board  have 
done,  or  permitted,  any  act  in  contravention  of,  or  have  failed 
to  comply  with,  the  said  regulations,  the  matter  shall  be  referred 
to  the  Education  Department,  whose  decision  thereon  shall  be 
final." 

It  will  be  observed  that  this  clause  gives  the 
Minister  of  Education  absolute  power  over  the 
doings  of  the  School  Boards.  He  is  not  only  the 
administrator  of  the  Act,  but  he  is  its  interpreter. 
I  had  imagined  that  on  the  occurrence  of  a  dispute, 
not  as  regards  a  question  of  pure  administration, 
but  as  to  the  meaning  of  a  clause  of  the  Ac:,  a 
case  might  be  taken  and  referred  to  a  court  of 
ice.  But  I  am  led  to  believe  that  the 
Legislature  has,  in  the  present  instance,  deliber- 
ately taken  this  power  out  of  the  hands  of  the 
judges  and  lodged  it  in  those  of  the  Minister  of 
;ation,  who,  in  accordance  with  our  method 
of  making  Ministers,  will  necessarily  be  a  political 
partisan,  and  who  may  be  a  strong  theological 
sectary  into  the  bargain.  And  I  am  informed  by 
members  of  Parliament  who  watched  the  progress 
of  the  Act,  that  the  responsibility  for  this  unusual 
state  of  things  rests,  not  with  the  Government, 
but  with  the  Legislature,  which  exhibited  a 


378  THE  SCHOOL  BOARDS  xv 

singular  disposition  to  accumulate  power  in  the 
hands  of  the  future  Minister  of  Education,  and  to 
evade  the  more  troublesome  difficulties  of  the 
education  question  by  leaving  them  to  be  settled 
between  that  Minister  and  the  School  Boards. 

I  express  no  opinion  whether  it  is,  or  is  not, 
desirable  that  such  powers  of  controlling  all  the 
School  Boards  in  the  country  should  be  possessed 
by  a  person  who  may  be,  like  Mr.  Forster,  eminently 
likely  to  use  these  powers  justly  and  wisely,  but 
who  also  may  be  quite  the  reverse.  I  merely 
wish  to  draw  attention  to  the  fact  that  such 
powers  are  given  to  the  Minister,  whether  he  be 
fit  or  unfit.  The  extent  of  these  powers  becomes 
apparent  when  the  other  sections  of  the  Act 
referred  to  are  considered.  The  fourth  clause  of 
the  seventh  section  says  : — 

"  The  school  shall  be  conducted  in  accordance  with  the  con- 
ditions  required  to  be  fulfilled  by  an  elementary  school  in 
order  to  obtain  an  annual  Parliamentary  grant." 

What  these  conditions  are  appears  from  the 
following  clauses  of  the  ninety-seventh  section  : — 

"The  conditions  required  to  be  fulfilled  by  an  elementary 
school  in  order  to  obtain  an  annual  Parliamentary  grant  shall 
be  those  contained  in  the  minutes  of  the  Education  Department 
in  force  for  the  time  being.  .  .  .  Provided  that  no  such  minute 
of  the  Education  Department,  not  in  force  at  the  time  of  the 
passing  of  this  Act,  shall  be  deemed  to  be  in  force  until  it  has 
lain  for  not  less  than  one  month  on  the  table  of  both  Houses  of 
Parliament" 


XT  THE  SCHOOL  BOARDS          379 

Let  us  consider  how  this  will  work  in  practice. 
A  school  established  by  a  School  Board  may  receive 
support  from  three  sources — from  the  rates,  the 
school  fees,  and  the  Parliamentary  grant.  The 
latter  may  be  as  great  as  the  two  former  taken  to- 
gether ;  and  as  it  may  be  assumed,  without  much 
risk  of  error,  that  a  constant  pressure  willbe  exerted 
by  the  ratepayers  on  the  members  who  represent 
them  to  get  as  much  out  of  the  Government,  and 
as  little  out  of  the  rates,  as  possible,  the  School 
Boards  will  have  a  very  strong  motive  for  shaping 
the  education  they  give,  as  nearly  as  may  be,  on 
the  model  which  the  Education  Minister  offers  for 
their  imitation,  and  for  the  copying  of  which  he  is 
prepared  to  pay. 

The  Revised  Code  did  Dot  compel  any  school- 
master to  leave  off  teaching  anything ;  but,  by  the 
very  simple  process  of  refusing  to  pay  for  many 
kinds  of  teaching,  it  has  practically  put  an  end  to 
them.  Mr.  Forster  is  said  to  be  engaged  in 
revising  the  Revised  Code  ;  a  successor  of  his  may 
re-revise  it — and  there  will  be  no  sort  of  check 
upon  these  revisions  and  counter  revisions,  except 
the  possibility  of  a  Parliamentary  debate,  when 
the  revised,  or  added,  minutes  are  laid  upon  the 
table.  What  chance  is  there  that  any  such  debate 
will  take  place  on  a  matter  of  detail  relating  to 
elementary  education — a  subject  with  which  mem- 
bers of  the  Legislature,  having  been,  for  the  most 
part,  sent  to  our  public  schools  thirty  years  ago, 


380          THE  SCHOOL  BOARDS  XV 

have  not  the  least  practical  acquaintance,  and  for 
which  they  care  nothing,  unless  it  derives  a 
political  value  from  its  connection  with  sectarian 
politics  ? 

I  cannot  but  think,  then,  that  the  School 
Boards  will  have  the  appearance,  but  not  the 
reality,  of  freedom  of  action,  in  regard  to  the 
subject-matter  of  what  is  commonly  called 
"  secular  "  education. 

As  respects  what  is  commonly  called  "  religious  " 
education,  the  power  of  the  Minister  of  Education 
is  even  more  despotic.  An  interest,  almost 
amounting  to  pathos,  attaches  itself,  in  my  mind, 
to  the  frantic  exertions  which  are  at  present  going 
on  in  almost  every  school  division,  to  elect  certain 
candidates  whose  names  have  never  before  been 
heard  of  in  connection  with  education,  and  who  are 
either  sectarian  partisans,  or  nothing.  In  my  own 
particular  division,  a  body  organised  ad  hoc  is 
moving  heaven  and  earth  to  get  the  seven  seats 
filled  by  seven  gentlemen,  four  of  whom  are  good 
Churchmen,  and  three  no  less  good  Dissenters. 
But  why  should  this  seven  times  heated  fiery 
furnace  of  theological  zeal  be  so  desirous  to  shed 
its  genial  warmth  over  the  London  School  Board  ? 
Can  it  be  that  these  zealous  sectaries  mean  to 
evade  the  solemn  pledge  given  in  the  Act  ? 

66  No  religious  catechism  or  religious  formulary  which  is  dis- 
tinctive of  any  particular  denomination  shall  be  taught  in  the 
school." 


XV  THE  SCHOOL  BOARDS          381 

I  confess  I  should  have  thought  it  my  duty  to 
reject  any  such  suggestion,  as  dishonouring  to 
a  number  of  worthy  persons,  if  it  had  not  been  for 
a  leading  article  and  some  correspondence  which 
appeared  in  the  (hiardian  of  November  9th, 
1870. 

The  Guardian  is,  as  everybody  knows,  one  of 
the  best  of  the  "  religious "  newspapers ;  and, 
personally,  I  have  every  reason  to  speak  highly  of 
the  fairness,  and  indeed  kindness,  with  which  the 
editor  is  good  enough  to  deal  with  a  writer  who 
must,  in  many  ways,  be  so  objectionable  to  him  as 
myself.  I  quote  the  folio  wing  passages  from  a 
leading  article  on  a  letter  of  mine,  therefore,  with 
all  respect,  and  with  a  genuine  conviction  that  the 
course  of  conduct  advocated  by  the  writer  must 
appear  to  him  in  a  very  different  light  from  that 
under  which  I  see  it : — 

"  The  first  of  these  points  is  the  interpretation  which  Professor 
Huxley  puts  on  the  '  Cowper-Temple  clause.'  It  is,  in  fact, 
that  which  we  foretold  some  time  ago  as  likely  to  be  forced 
upon  it  by  those  who  think  with  him.  The  clause  itself  was 
one  of  those  compromises  which  it  is  very  difficult  to  define  or 
to  maintain  logically.  On  the  one  side  was  the  simplg  freedom 
to  School  Boards  to  establish  what  schools  they  pleased,  which 
Mr.  Forster  originally  gave,  but  against  which  the  Nou  conform- 
ists lifted  up  their  voices,  because  they  conceived  it  likely  to 
give  too  much  power  to  the  Church.  On  the  other  side  there 
was  the  proposition  to  make  the  schools  secular — intelligible 
enough,  but  in  the  consideration  of  public  opinion  simply  im- 
possible—and there  was  the  vague  impracticable  idea,  which 
Mr.  Gladstone  thoroughly  tore  to  pieces,  of  enacting  that  the 


382          THE  SCHOOL  BOARDS  XV 

teaching  of  all  school-masters  in  the  new  schools  should  bo 
strictly  'undenominational.'  The  Cowper-Temple  clause  was, 
we  repeat,  proposed  simply  to  tide  over  the  difficulty.  It  was 
to  satisfy  the  Nonconformists  and  the  'unsectarian,'  as  distinct 
from  the  secular  party  of  the  League,  by  forbidding  all  distinc- 
tive *  catechisms  and  formularies,'  which  might  have  the  effect 
of  openly  assigning  the  schools  to  this  or  that  religious  body. 
It  refused,  at  the  same  time,  to  attempt  the  impossible  task  of 
denning  what  was  undenominational ;  and  its  author  even  con- 
tended, if  we  understood  him  correctly,  that  it  would  in  no  way, 
even  indirectly,  interfere  with  the  substantial  teaching  of  any 
master  in  any  school.  This  assertion  we  always  believed,  to  be 
untenable  ;  we  could  not  see  how,  in  the  face  of  this  clause,  a 
distinctly  denominational  tone  could  be  honestly  given  to 
schools  nominally  general.  But  beyond  this  mere  suggestion  of 
an  attempt  at  a  general  tone  of  comprehensiveness  in  religious 
teaching  it  was  not  intended  to  go,  and  only  because  such  was 
its  limitation  was  it  accepted  by  the  Government  and  by  tho 
House. 

"But  now  we  are  told  that  it  is  to  be  construed  as  doing  pre- 
cisely that  which  it  refused  to  do.  A  '  formulary,'  it  seems,  is 
a  collection  of  formulas,  and  formulas  are  simply  propositions 
of  whatever  kind  touching  religious  faith.  All  such  propositions, 
if  they  cannot  be  accepted  by  all  Christian  denominations,  are 
to  be  proscribed ;  and  it  is  added  significantly  that  the  Jews 
also  are  a  denomination,  and  so  that  any  teaching  distinctively 
Christian  is  perhaps  to  be  excluded,  lest  it  should  interfere  with 
their  freedom  and  rights.  Are  we  then  to  fall  back  on  the 
simple  reading  of  the  letter  of  the  Bible  ?  No  !  this,  it  is 
granted,  would  be  an  *  unworthy  pretence.'  The  teacher  is  to 
give  *  grammatical,  geographical,  or  historical  explanations  ; ' 
but  he  is  to  keep  clear  of  'theology  proper/  because,  as  Pro- 
fessor Huxley  takes  great  pains  to  prove,  there  is  no  theological 
teaching  which  is  not  opposed  by  some  sect  or  other,  from 
Roman  Catholicism  on  the  one  hand  to  Unitarianism  on  the 
other.  It  was  not,  perhaps,  hard  to  see  that  this  difficulty 
would  be  started  ;  and  to  those  who,  like  Professor  Huxley  look 
at  it  theoretically,  without  much  practical  experience  of  schools, 


XV  THE  SCHOOL  BOARDS          383 

it  may  appear  serious  or  unanswerable.  But  there  is  veiy  little 
in  it  practically ;  when  it  is  faced  determinately  and  handled 
firmly,  it  will  soon  shrink  into  its  true  dimensions.  The  class 
who  are  least  frightened  at  it  are  the  school  teachers,  simply  be- 
cause they  know  most  about  it.  It  is  quite  clear  that  the  school 
managers  must  be  cautioned  against  allowing  their  schools  to  be 
made  places  of  proselytism  :  but  when  this  is  done,  the  case  is 
simple  enough.  Leave  the  masters  under  this  general  under- 
standing to  teach  freely  ;  if  there  is  ground  of  complaint,  let  it 
be  made,  but  leave  the  onus  probandi  on  the  objectors.  For  ex- 
treme peculiarities  of  belief  or  unbelief  there  is  the  Conscience 
Clause  ;  as  to  the  mass  of  parents,  they  will  be  more  anxious  to 
have  religion  taught  than  afraid  of  its  assuming  this  or  that  par- 
ticular shade.  They  will  trust  the  school  managers  and  teachers 
till  they  have  reason  to  distrust  them,  and  experience  has  shown 
that  they  may  trust  them  safely  enough.  Any  attempt  to 
throw  the  burden  of  making  the  teaching  undenominational 
upon  the  managers  must  be  sternly  resisted  :  it  is  simply  evad- 
ing the  intentions  of  the  Act  in  an  elaborate  attempt  to  carry 
them  out.  We  thank  Professor  Huxley  for  the  warning.  To  be 
forewarned  is  to  be  forearmed. " 

A  good  deal  of  light  seems  to  me  to  be  thrown 
on  the  practical  significance  of  the  opinions 
expressed  in  the  foregoing  extract  by  the  following 
interesting  letter,  which  appeared  in  the  same 
paper : — 

"Sin, — I  venture  to  send  to  you  the  substance  of  a  corre- 
spondence with  the  Education  Department  upon  the  question  of 
the  lawfulness  of  religious  teaching  in  rate  schools  under  section 
14  (2)  of  the  Act.  I  asked  whether  the  words  'which  is  dis- 
tinctive,' &c.,  taken  grammatically  as  limiting  the  prohibition 
of  any  religious  formulary,  might  be  construed  as  allowing 
(subject,  however,  to  the  other  provisions  of  the  Act)  any 
religious  formulary  common  to  any  two  denominations  any- 
where in  England  to  be  taught  in  such  schools  ;  and  if  practi- 


384          THE  SCHOOL  BOARDS  xv 

cally  the  limit  could  not  be  so  extended,  but  would  have  to  be 
fixed  according  to  the  special  circumstances  of  each  district,  then 
what  degree  of  general  acceptance  in  a  district  would  exempt 
such  a  formulary  from  the  prohibition  ?  The  answer  to  this  was 
as  follows  : — 'It  was  understood,  when  clause  14  of  the  Educa- 
tion Act  was  discussed  in  the  House  of  Commons,  that,  accord- 
ing to  a  well-known  rule  of  interpreting  Acts  of  Parliament, 
"denomination"  must  be  held  to  include  "denominations." 
When  any  dispute  is  referred  to  the  Education  Department 
under  the  last  paragraph  of  section  16,  it  will  be  dealt  with 
according  to  the  circumstances  of  the  case/ 

"  Upon  my  asking  further  if  I  might  hence  infer  that  the  law- 
fulness of  teaching  any  religious  formulary  in  a' rate  school 
would  thus  depend  exclusively  on  local  circumstances,  and  would 
accordingly  be  so  decided  by  the  Education  Department  in  case 
of  dispute*  I  was  informed  in  explanation  that  *  their  lordships' ' 
letter  was  intended  to  convey  tome  that  no  general  rule,  beyond 
that  stated  in  the  first  paragraph  of  their  letter,  could  at  present 
be  laid  down  by  them  ;  and  that  their  decision  in  each  particu- 
lar case  must  depend  on  the  special  circumstances  accompany- 
ing it. 

"  I  think  it  would  appear  from  this  that  it  may  yet  be  in 
many  cases  both  lawful  and  expedient  to  teach  religious  formu- 
laries in  rate  schools.  H.  I. 

"STEYNING,  November  5,  1870." 

Of  course  I  do  not  mean  to  suggest  that  the 
editor  of  the  Guardian  is  bound  by  the  opinions 
of  his  correspondent ;  but  I  cannot  help  thinking 
that  I  do  not  misrepresent  him,  when  I  say  that  he 
also  thinks  "  that  it  may  yet  be,  in  many  cases,  both 
lawful  and  expedient  to  teach  religious  formularies 
in  rate  schools  under  these  circumstances." 

It  is  not  uncharitable,  therefore,  to  assume  that, 
the  express  words  of  the  Act  of  Parliament  not- 


rXV  THE  SCHOOL  BOARDS          385 

withstanding,  all  the  sectaries  who  are  toiling  so 
hard  for  seats  in  the  London  School  Board  have 
the  lively  hope  of  the  gentleman  from  Steyning, 
that  it  may  be  "  both  lawful  and  expedient  to  teach 
religious  formularies  in  rate  schools ; "  and  that 
they  mean  to  do  their  utmost  to  bring  this  happy 
consummation  about.1 

Now  the  pathetic  emotion  to  which  I  have 
referred,  as  accompanying  my  contemplations  of 
the  violent  struggles  of  so  many  excellent  persons, 
is  caused  by  the  circumstance  that,  so  far  as  I  can 
judge,  their  labour  is  in  vain. 

Supposing  that  the  London  School  Board  con- 
tains, as  it  probably  will  do,  a  majority  of  sectaries ; 
and  that  they  carry  over  the  heads  of  a  minority, 
a  resolution  that  certain  theological  formulas,  about 
which  they  all  happen  to  agree, — say,  for  example, 
the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity, — shall  be  taught  in  the 
schools.  Do  they  fondly  imagine  that  the  minority 
will  not  at  once  dispute  their  interpretation  of  the 

1  A  passage  in  an  article  on  the  ' '  Working  of  the  Education 
Act,"  in  the  Saturday  Review  for  Nov.  19,  1870,  completely 
justifies  this  anticipation  of  the  line  of  action  which  the  sec- 
taries mean  to  take.  After  commending  the  Liverpool  com- 
promise, the  writer  goes  on  to  say  : — 

'  *  If  this  plan  is  fairly  adopted  in  Liverpool,  the  fourteenth 
clause  of  the  Act  will  in  effect  be  restored  to  its  original  form, 
and  the  majority  of  the  ratepayers  in  each  district  be  permitted 
to  decide  to  what  denomination  the  school  shall  belong." 

In  a  previous  paragraph  the  writer  speaks  of  a  possible 
"mistrust"  of  one  another  by  the  members  of  the  Board,  and 
seems  to  anticipate  "  accusations  of  dishonesty."  If  any  of  the 
members  of  the  Board  adopt  his  views,  I  think  it  highly 
probable  that  he  may  turn  out  to  be  a  true  prophet. 


386          THE  SCHOOL  BOARDS  XV 

Act,  and  appeal  to  the  Education  Department  to 
settle  that  dispute  ?  And  if  so,  do  they  suppose 
that  any  Minister  of  Education,  who  wants  to  keop 
his  place,  will  tighten  boundaries  which  the  Legis- 
lature has  left  loose ;  and  will  give  a  "  final  decision  " 
which  shall  be  offensive  to  every  Unitarian  and  to 
every  Jew  in  the  House  of  Commons,  besides 
creating  a  precedent  which  will  afterwards  be  used 
to  the  injury  of  every  Nonconformist  ?  The  editor 
of  the  Guardian  tells  his  friends  sternly  to  resist 
every  attempt  to  throw  the  burden  of  making  the 
teaching  undenominational  on  the  managers,  and 
thanks  me  for  the  warning  I  have  given  him.  I 
return  the  thanks,  with  interest,  for  his  warning, 
as  to  the  course  the  party  he  represents  intends  to 
pursue,  and  for  enabling  me  thus  to  draw  public 
attention  to  a  perfectly  constitutional  and  effectual 
mode  of  checkmating  them. 

And,  in  truth,  it  is  wonderful  to  note  the  sur- 
prising entanglement  into  which  our  able  editor 
gets  himself  in  the  struggle  between  his  native 
honesty  and  judgment  and  the  necessities  of  his 
party.  "  We  could  not  see,"  says  he,  "  in  the  face 
of  this  clause  how  a  distinct  denominational  tone 
could  be  honestly  given  to  schools  nominally  gen- 
eral/' There  speaks  the  honest  and  clear-headed 
man.  "Any  attempt  to  throw  the  burden  of 
making  the  teaching  undenominational  must  be 
sternly  resisted/'  There  speaks  the  advocate 
holding  a  brief  for  his  party.  "  Verily,"  as  Trinculo 


XV  THE  SCHOOL  BOARDS          387 

says,  "  the  monster  hath  two  mouths : "  the  one,  the 
forward  mouth,  tells  us  very  justly  that  the  teaching 
cannot  "  honestly  "  be  "distinctly  denominational;" 
but  the  other,  the  backward  mouth,  asserts  that  it 
must  by  no  manner  of  means  be  "  undenomina- 
tional." Putting  the  two  utterances  together,  I 
can  only  interpret  them  to  mean  that  the  teaching 
is  to  be  "  indistinctly  denominational."  If  the 
editor  of  the  Guardian  had  not  shown  signs  of 
anger  at  my  use  of  the  term  "  theological  fog,"  I 
should  have  been  tempted  to  suppose  it  must  have 
been  what  he  had  in  his  mind,  under  the  name  of 
"  indistinct  denominationalism."  But  this  reading 
being  plainly  inadmissible,  I  can  only  imagine  that 
he  inculcates  the  teaching  of  formulas  common  to 
a  number  of  denominations. 

But  the  Education  Department  has  already  told 
the  gentleman  from  Steyning  that  any  such  pro- 
ceeding will  be  illegal.  "  According  to  a  well-known 
rule  of  interpreting  Acts  of  Parliament,  '  denom- 
ination' would  be  held  to  include  *  denominations/  " 
In  other  words,  we  must  read  the  Act  thus  : — 

"  No  religious  catechism  or  religious  formulary 
which  is  distinctive  of  any  particular  denominations 
shall  be  taught." 

Thus  we  are  really  very  much  indebted  to  the 
editor  of  the  Guardian  and  his  correspondent. 
The  one  has  shown  us  that  the  sectaries  mean  to 
try  to  get  as  much  denominational  teaching  as  they 
can  agree  upon  among  themselves,  forced  into  the 


388  THE   SCHOOL  BOARDS  x-V 

elementary  schools ;  while  the  other  has  obtained 
a  formal  declaration  from  the  Educational  Depart- 
ment that  any  such  attempt  will  contravene  the 
Act  of  Parliament,  and  that,  therefore,  the  unsec- 
tarian,  law-abiding  members  of  the  School  Boards 
may  safely  reckon  upon  bringing  down  upon  their 
opponents  the  heavy  hand  of  the  Minister  of 
Education.1 

So  much  for  the  powers  of  the  School  Boards. 
Limited  as  they  seem  to  be,  it  by  no  means  follows 
that  such  Boards,  if  they  are  composed  of  intelli- 
gent and  practical  men,  really  more  in  earnest 
about  education  than  about  sectarian  squabbles, 
may  not  exert  a  very  great  amount  of  influence. 
And,  from  many  circumstances,  this  is  especially 
likely  to  be  the  case  with  the  London  School  Board, 
which,  if  it  conducts  itself  wisely,  may  become  a 
true  educational  parliament,  as  subordinate  in  au- 
thority to  the  Minister  of  Education,  theoretically, 
as  the  Legislature  is  to  the  Crown,  and  yet.  like 
the  Legislature,  possessed  of  great  practical 
authority.  And  I  suppose  that  no  Minister  of 
Education  would  be  other  than  glad  to  have  the 

1  Since  this  paragraph  was  written,  Mr.  Forster,  in  speaking 
at  the  Birkbeck  Institution,  has  removed  all  doubt  as  to  what  his 
"  final  decision  "  will  be  in  the  case  of  such  disputes  being 
referred  to  him  : — "I  have  the  fullest  confidence  that  in  the 
reading  and  explaining  of  the  Bible,  what  the  children  will  be 
taught  will  be  the  great  truths  of  Christian  life  and  conduct, 
which  all  <}f  us  desire  they  should  know,  and  that  no  effort  will 
be  made  to  cram  into  their  poor  little  minds,  theological  dogmas 
which  their  tender  age  prevents  them  from  understanding." 


XV  THE  SCHOOL  BOARDS          389 

aid  of  the  deliberations  of  such  a  body,  or  fail  to 
pay  careful  attention  to  its  recommendations. 

What,  then,  ought  to  be  the  nature  and  scope  of 
the  education  which  a  School  Board  should  endeav- 
our to  give  to  every  child  under  its  influence,  and 
for  which  it  should  try  to  obtain  the  aid  of  the 
Parliamentary  grants  ?  In  my  judgment  it  should 
include  at  least  the  following  kinds  of  instruction 
and  of  discipline  : — 

1.  Physical  training  and  drill,  as  part  of  the 
regular  business  of  the  school. 

It  is  impossible  to  insist  too  much  on  the  import- 
ance of  this  part  of  education  for  the  children  of 
the  poor  of  great  towns.  All  the  conditions  of 
their  lives  are  unfavourable  to  their  physical  well- 
being.  They  are  badly  lodged,  badly  housed,  badly 
fed,  and  live  from  one  year's  end  to  another  in  bad 
air,  without  chance  of  a  change.  They  have  no 
play-grounds;  they  amuse  themselves  with  marbles 
and  chuck-farthing,  instead  of  cricket  or  hare- 
and-hounds  ;  and  if  it  were  not  for  the  wonderful 
instinct  which  leads  all  poor  children  of  tender 
years  to  run  under  the  feet  of  cab-horses  whenever 
they  can,  I  know  not  how  they  would  learn  to  use 
their  limbs  with  agility. 

Now  there  is  no  real  difficulty  about  teaching 
drill  and  the  simpler  kinds  of  gymnastics.  It  is 
done  admirably  well,  for  example,  in  the  North 
Surrey  Union  schools  ;  and  a  year  or  two  ago 
when  I  had  an  opportunity  of  inspecting  these 


SCO  THE   SCHOOL   BOARDS  XV 

schools,  I  was  greatly  struck  with  the  effect  of 
such  training  upon  the  poor  little  waifs  and  strays 
of  humanity,  mostly  picked  out  of  the  gutter,  who 
are  being  made  into  cleanly,  healthy,  and  useful 
members  of  society  in  that  excellent  institution. 

Whatever  doubts  people  may  entertain  about 
the  efficacy  of  natural  selection,  there  can  be  none 
about  artificial  selection;  and  the  breeder  who 
should  attempt  to  make,  or  keep  up,  a  fine  stock 
of  pigs,  or  sheep,  under  the  conditions  to  which 
the  children  of  the  poor  are  exposed,  would  be  the 
laughing-stock  even  of  the  bucolic  mind.  Parlia- 
ment has  already  done  something  in  this  direction 
by  declining  to  be  an  accomplice  in  the  asphyxiation 
of  school  children.  It  refuses  to  make  any  grant 
to  a  school  in  which  the  cubical  contents  of  the 
school-room  are  inadequate  to  allow  of  proper 
respiration.  I  should  like  to  see  it  make  another 
step  in  the  same  direction,  and  either  refuse  to 
give  a  grant  to  a  school  in  which  physical  training 
is  not  a  part  of  the  programme,  or,  at  any  rate, 
offer  to  pay  upon  such  training.  If  something  of 
the  kind  is  not  done,  the  English  physique,  which 
has  been,  and  is  still,  on  the  whole,  a  grand  one, 
will  become  as  extinct  as  the  dodo  in  the  great 
towns. 

And  then  the  moral  and  intellectual  effect  of  drill, 
as  an  introduction  to,  and  aid  of,  all  other  sorts  of 
training,  must  not  be  overlooked.  If  you  want  to 
break  in  a  colt,  surely  the  first  thing  to  do  is  to 


XV  THE  SCHOOL  BOARDS          391 

catch  him  and  get  him  quietly  to  face  his  trainer ; 
to  know  his  voice  and  bear  his  hand  ;  to  learn  that 
colts  have  something  else  to  do  with  their  heels 
than  to  kick  them  up  whenever  they  feel  so 
inclined ;  and  to  discover  that  the  dreadful  human 
figure  has  no  desire  to  devour,  or  even  to  beat 
him,  but  that,  in  case  of  attention  and  obedience, 
he  may  hope  for  patting  and  even  a  sieve  of  oats. 

But,  your  "  street  Arabs,"  and  other  neglected 
poor  children,  are  rather  worse  and  wilder  than 
colts ;  for  the  reason  that  the  horse-colt  has  only 
his  animal  instincts  in  him,  and  his  mother,  the 
mare,  has  been  always  tender  over  him,  and  never 
came  home  drunk  and  kicked  him  in  her  life ;  while 
the  man-colt  is  inspired  by  that  very  real  devil,  per- 
verted manhood,  and  .his  mother  may  have  done 
all  that  and  more.  So,  on  the  whole,  it  may 
probably  be  even  more  expedient  to  begin  your 
attempt  to  get  at  the  higher  nature  of  the  child, 
than  at  that  of  the  colt,  from  the  physical  side. 

2.  Next  in  order  to  physical  training  I  put  the 
instruction  of  children,  and  especially  of  girls,  in 
the  elements  of  household  work  and  of  domestic 
economy ;  in  the  first  place  for  their  own  sakes, 
and  in  the  second  for  that  of  their  future 
employers. 

Every  one  who  knows  anything  of  the  life  of  the 
English  poor  is  aware  of  the  misery  and  waste 
caused  by  their  want  of  knowledge  of  domestic 
economy,  and  by  their  lack  of  habits  of  frugality 

85 


SD2          THE  SCHOOL  BOARDS  XV 

and  method.  I  suppose  it  is  no  exaggeration  to 
say  that  a  poor  Frenchwoman  would  make  the 
money  which  the  wife  of  a  poor  Englishman 
spends  in  food  go  twice  as  far,  and  at  the  same 
time  turn  out  twice  as  palatable  a  dinner.  Why 
Englishmen,  who  are  so  notoriously  fond  of  good 
living,  should  be  so  helplessly  incompetent  in  the 
art  of  cookery,  is  one  of  the  great  mysteries  of 
nature ;  but  from  the  varied  abominations  of  the 
railway  refreshment-rooms  to  the  monotonous 
dinners  of  the  poor,  English  feeding  is  either 
wasteful  or  nasty,  or  both. 

And  as  to  domestic  service,  the  groans  of  the 
housewives  of  England  ascend  to  heaven  !  In  five 
cases  out  of  six  the  girl  who  takes  a  "  place  "  has 
to  be  trained  by  her  mistress  in  the  first  rudiments 
of  decency  and  order ;  and  it  is  a  mercy  if  she  does 
not  turn  up  her  nose  at  anything  like  the  mention 
of  an  honest  and  proper  economy.  Thousands  of 
young  girls  are  said  to  starve,  or  worse,  yearly  in 
London ;  and  at  the  same  time  thousands  of 
mistresses  of  households  are  ready  to  pay  high 
wages  for  a  decent  housemaid,  or  cook,  or  a  fair 
workwoman ;  and  can  by  no  means  get  what  they 
want. 

Surely,  if  the  elementary  schools  are  worth  any- 
thing, they  may  put  an  end  to  a  state  of  things 
which  is  demoralising  the  poor,  while  it  is  wasting 
the  lives  of  those  better  off  in  small  worries  and 
annoyances. 


X?  THE   SCHOOL   BOARDS  393 

3.  But  the  boys  and  girls  for  whose  education 
the  School  Boards  have  to  provide,  have  not 
merely  to  discharge  domestic  duties,  but  each  of 
them  is  a  member  of  a  social  and  political  organ- 
isation of  great  complexity,  and  has,  in  future  life, 
to  fit  himself  into  that  organisation,  or  be  crushed 
by  it.  To  this  end  it  is  surely  needful,  not  only 
that  they  should  be  made  acquainted  with  the 
elementary  laws  of  conduct,  but  that  their  affec- 
tions should  be  trained,  so  as  to  love  with  all  their 
hearts  that  conduct  which  tends  to  the  attainment 
of  the  highest  good  for  themselves  and  their 
fellow  men,  and  to  hate  with  all  their  hearts  that 
opposite  course  of  action  which  is  fraught  with 
evil. 

So  far  as  the  laws  of  conduct  are  determined  by 
the  intellect,  I  apprehend  that  they  belong  to 
science,  and  to  that  part  of  science  which  is  called 
morality.  But  the  engagement  of  the  affections 
in  favour  of  that  particular  kind  of  conduct  which 
we  call  good,  seems  to  me  to  be  something  quite 
beyond  mere  science.  And  I  cannot  but  think 
that  it,  together  with  the  awe  and  reverence, 
which  have  no  kinship  with  base  fear,  but  arise 
whenever  one  tries  to  pierce  below  the  surface  of 
things,  whether  they  be  material  or  spiritual,  con- 
stitutes all  that  has  any  unchangeable  reality  in 
religion. 

And  just  as  I  think  it  would  be  a  mistake  to 
confound  the  science,  morality,  with  the  affection, 


394          THE  SCHOOL  BOARDS  XV 

religion ;  so  do  I  conceive  it  to  be  a  most  lament- 
able and  mischievous  error,  that  the  science, 
theology,  is  so  confounded  in  the  minds  of  many — 
indeed,  I  might  say,  of  the  majority  of  men. 

I  do  not  express  any  opinion  as  to  whether 
theology  is  a  true  science,  or  whether  it  does  not 
come  under  the  apostolic  definition  of  "  science 
falsely  so  called  ; "  though  I  may  be  permitted  to 
express  the  belief  that  if  the  Apostle  to  whom 
that  much  misapplied  phrase  is  due  could  make 
the  acquaintance  of  much  of  modern  theology,  he 
would  not  hesitate  a  moment  in  declaring  that  it 
is  exactly  what  he  meant  the  words  to  denote. 

But  it  is  at  any  rate  conceivable,  that  the 
nature  of  the  Deity,  and  his  relations  to  the 
universe,  and  more  especially  to  mankind,  are 
capable  of  being  ascertained,  either  inductively  or 
deductively,  or  by  both  processes.  And,  if  they 
have  been  ascertained,  then  a  body  of  science  has 
been  formed  which  is  very  properly  called 
theology. 

Further,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  affection 
for  the  Being  thus  defined  and  described  by 
theologic  science  would  be  properly  termed  re- 
ligion ;  but-  it  would  not  be  the  whole  of  religion. 
The  affection  for  the  ethical  ideal  defined  by 
moral  science  would  claim  equal  if  not  superior 
rights.  For  suppose  theology  established  the 
existence  of  an  evil  deity — and  some  theologies, 
even  Christian  ones,  have  come  very  near  this,— 


XV  THE  SCHOOL  BOARDS          395 

is  tlie  religious  affection  to  be  transferred  from  the 
ethical  ideal  to  any  such  omnipotent  demon  ?  I 
trow  not.  Better  a  thousand  times  that  the 
human  race  should  perish  under  his  thunderbolts 
than  it  should  say,  "  Evil,  be  thou  my  good." 

There  is  nothing  new,  that  I  know  of,  in  this 
statement  of  the  relations  of  religion  with  the 
science  of  morality  on  the  one  hand  and  that  of 
theology  on  the  other.  But  I  believe  it  to  be 
altogether  true,  and  very  needful,  at  this  time,  to 
be  clearly  and  emphatically  recognised  as  such, 
by  those  who  have  to  deal  with  the  education 
question. 

We  are  divided  into  two  parties — the  advocates 
of  so-called  "  religious  "  teaching  on  the  one  hand, 
and  those  of  so-called  "  secular  "  teaching  on  the 
other.  And  both  parties  seem  to  me  to  be  not 
only  hopelessly  wrong,  but  in  such  a  position  that 
if  either  succeeded  completely,  it  would  discover, 
before  many  years  were  over,  that  it  had  made  a 
great  mistake  and  done  serious  evil  to  the  cause 
of  education. 

For,  leaving  aside  the  more  far-seeing  minority 
on  each  side,  what  the  "  religious  "  party  is  crying 
for  is  mere  theology,  under  the  name  of  religion  ; 
while  the  "  secularists  "  have  unwisely  and  wrong- 
fully admitted  the  assumption  of  their  opponents, 
and  demand  the  abolition  of  all  "  religious  "  teach- 
ing, when  they  only  want  to  be  free  of  theology — 
Burning  your  ship  to  get  rid  of  the  cockroaches ! 


396          THE  SCHOOL  BOARDS  XT 

Bat  my  belief  is,  that  no  human  being,  and  no 
society  composed  of  human  beings,  ever  did,  or 
ever  will,  come  to  much,  unless  their  conduct  was 
governed  and  guided  by  the  love  of  some  ethical 
ideal.  Undoubtedly,  your  gutter  child  may  be 
converted  by  mere  intellectual  drill  into  "the 
subtlest  of  all  the  beasts  of  the  field ; "  but  we 
know  what  has  become  of  the  original  of  that 
description,  and  there  is  no  need  to  increase  the 
number  of  those  who  imitate  him  successfully 
without  being  aided  by  the  rates.  And  if  I  were 
compelled  to  choose  for  one  of  my  own  children, 
between  a  school  in  which  real  religious  instruction 
is  given,  and  one  without  it,  I  should  prefer  the 
former,  even  though  the  child  might  have  to  take 
a  good  deal  of  theology  with  it.  Nine-tenths  of  a 
dose  of  bark  is  mere  half-rotten  wood ;  but  one 
swallows  it  for  the  sake  of  the  particles  of  quinine, 
the  beneficial  effect  of  which  may  be  weakened, 
but  is  not  destroyed,  by  the  wooden  dilution, 
unless  in  a  few  cases  of  exceptionally  tender 
stomachs. 

Hence,  when  the  great  mass  of  the  English 
people  declare  that  they  want  to  have  the  children 
in  the  elementary  schools  taught  the  Bible,  and 
when  it  is  plain  from  the  terms  of  the  Act,  the 
debates  in  and  out  of  Parliament,  and  especially 
the  emphatic  declarations  of  the  Vice-President  of 
the  Council,  that  it  was  intended  that  such  Bible- 
reading  should  be  permitted,  unless  good  cause 


XV  THE  SCHOOL  BOARDS          397 

for  prohibiting  it  could  be  shown,  I  do  not  see 
what  reason  there  is  for  opposing  that  wish. 
Certainly,  I,  individually,  could  with  no  shadow 
of  consistency  oppose  the  teaching  of  the  children 
of  other  people  to  do  that  which  my  own  children 
are  taught  to  do.  And,  even  if  the  reading  the  Bible 
were  not,  as  I  think  it  is,  consonant  with  political 
reason  and  justice,  and  with  a  desire  to  act  in  the 
spirit  of  the  education  measure,  I  am  disposed  to 
think  it  might  still  be  well  to  read  that  book  in  the 
elementary  schools. 

I  have  always  been  strongly  in  favour  of  secular 
education,  in  the  sense  of  education  without 
theology  ;  but  I  must  confess  I  have  been  no  less 
seriously  perplexed  to  know  by  what  practical 
measures  the  religious  feeling,  which  is  the 
essential  basis  of  conduct,  was  to  be  kept  up,  in  the 
present  utterly  chaotic  state  of  opinion  on  these 
matters,  without  the  use  of  the  Bible.  The  Pagan 
moralists  lack  life  and  colour,  and  even  the  noble 
Stoic,  Marcus  Antonius,  is  too  high  and  refined 
for  an  ordinary  child.  Take  the  Bible  as  a  whole  ; 
make  the  severest  deductions  which  fair  criticism 
can  dictate  for  shortcomings  and  positive  errors ; 
eliminate,  as  a  sensible  lay-teacher  would  do,  if 
left  to  himself,  all  that  it  is  not  desirable  for 
children  to  occupy  themselves  with ;  and  there 
still  remains  in  this  old  literature  a  vast  residuum 
of  moral  beauty  and  grandeur.  And  then  consider 
the  great  historical  fact  that,  for  three  centuries, 


398          THE  SCHOOL  BOARDS  XV 

this  book  has  been  woven  into  the  life  of  all  that 
is  best  and  noblest  in  English  history ;  that  it  has 
become  the  national  epic  of  Britain,  and  is  as 
familiar  to  noble  and  simple,  from  John-o'-Groat's 
House  to  Land's  End,  as  Dante  and  Tasso  once 
were  to  the  Italians ;  that  it  is  written  in  the 
noblest  and  purest  English,  and  abounds  in  ex- 
quisite beauties  of  mere  literary  form ;  and, 
finally,  that  it  forbids  the  veriest  hind  who  never 
left  his  village  to  be  ignorant  of  the  existence  of 
other  countries  and  other  civilisations,  and  of  a 
great  past,  stretching  back  to  the  furthest  limits 
of  the  oldest  nations  in  the  world.  By  the  study 
of  what  other  book  could  children  be  so  much 
humanised  and  made  to  feel  that  each  figure  in 
that  vast  historical  procession  fills,  like  themselves, 
but  a  momentary  space  in  the  interval  between 
fewo  eternities;  and  earns  the  blessings  or  the  curses 
of  all  time,  according  to  its  effort  to  do  good  and 
hate  evil,  even  as  they  also  are  earning  their  pay- 
ment for  their  work  ? 

On  the  whole,  then,  I  am  in  favour  of  reading 
the  Bible,  with  such  grammatical,  geographical, 
and  historical  explanations  by  a  lay-teacher  as  may 
be  needful,  with  rigid  exclusion  of  any  further 
theological  teaching  than  that  contained  in  the 
Bible  itself.  And  in  stating  what  this  is,  the 
teacher  would  do  well  *not  to  go  beyond  the 
precise  words  of  the  Bible ;  for  if  he  does,  he  will, 
in  the  first  place,  undertake  a  task  beyond  his 


XV  THE  SCHOOL  BOARDS          399 

strength,  seeing  that  all  the  Jewish  and  Christian 
sects  have  been  at  work  upon  that  subject  for 
more  than  two  thousand  years,  and  have  not  yet 
arrived,  and  are  not  in  the  least  likely  to  arrive, 
at  an  agreement ;  and,  in  the  second  place,  he  will 
certainly  begin  to  teach  something  distinctively 
denominational,  and  thereby  come  into  violent 
collision  with  the  Act  of  Parliament. 

4.  The  intellectual  training  to  be  given  in  the 
elementary  schools  must  of  course,  in  the  first  place, 
consist  in  learning  to  use  the  means  of  acquiring 
knowledge,  or  reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic; 
and  it  will  be  a  great  matter  to  teach  reading  so 
completely  that  the  act  shall  have  become  easy 
and  pleasant.  If  reading  remains  "hard,"  that 
accomplishment  will  not  be  much  resorted  to  for 
instruction,  and  still  less  for  amusement — which 
last  is  one  of  its  most  valuable  uses  to  hard- 
worked  people.  But  along  with  a  due  pro- 
ficiency in  the  use  of  the  means  of  learning,  a 
certain  amount  of  knowledge,  of  intellectual 
discipline,  and  of  artistic  training  should  be 
conveyed  in  the  elementary  schools  ;  and  in 
this  direction — for.  reasons  which  I  am  afraid 
to  repeat,  having  urged  them  so  often — I  can 
conceive  no  subject-matter  of  education  so  ap- 
propriate and  so  important  as  the  rudiments  of 
physical  science,  with  drawing,  modelling,  and 
singing.  Not  only  would  such  teaching  afford  the 
best  possible  preparation  for  the  technical  schools 


400          THE  SCHOOL  BOAHDS  XV 

about  which  so  much  is  now  said,  but  the  organi- 
sation for  carrying  it  into  effect  already  exists.  The 
Science  and  Art  Department,  the  operations  of 
which  have  already  attained  considerable  magni- 
tude, not  only  offers  to  examine  and  pay  the 
results  of  such  examination  in  elementary  science 
and  art,  but  it  provides  what  is  still  more  import- 
ant, viz.  a  means  of  giving  children  of  high 
natural  ability,  who  are  just  as  abundant  among 
the  poor  as  among  the  rich,  a  helping. hand.  A 
good  old  proverb  tells  us  that "  One  should  not  take 
a  razor  to  cut  a  block  : "  the  razor  is  soon  spoiled, 
and  the  block  is  not  so  well  cut  as  it  would  be  with 
a  hatchet.  But  it  is  worse  economy  to  prevent  a 
possible  Watt  from  being  anything  but  a  stoker, 
or  to  give  a  possible  Faraday  no  chance  of  doing 
anything  but  to  bind  books.  Indeed,  the  loss  in 
such  cases  of  mistaken  vocation  has  no  measure ; 
it  is  absolutely  infinite  and  irreparable.  And 
among  the  arguments  in  favour  of  the  interference 
of  the  State  in  education,  none  seems  to  be 
stronger  than  this — that  it  is  the  interest  of  every 
one  that  ability  should  be  neither  wasted,  nor 
misapplied,  by  any  one  :  and,  therefore,  that  every 
one's  representative,  the  State,  is  necessarily 
fulfilling  the  wishes  of  its  constituents  when 
it  is  helping  the  capacities  to  reach  their  proper 
places. 

It  may  be  said  that  the  scheme  of  education 
here  sketched  is  too  large  to  be  effected  in  the 


XV  THE  SCHOOL  BOARDS          401 

time  during  which  the  children  will  remain  at 
school ;  and,  secondly,  that  even  if  this  objection 
did  not  exist,  it  would  cost  too  much. 

I  attach  no  importance  whatever  to  the  first 
objection  until  the  experiment  has  been  fairly 
tried.  Considering  how  much  catechism,  lists  of 
the  kings  of  Israel,  geography  of  Palestine,  and  the 
like,  children  are  made  to  swallow  now,  I  cannot 
believe  there  will  be  any  difficulty  in  inducing 
them  to  go  through  the  physical  training,  which 
is  more  than  half  play ;  or  the  instruction  in 
household  work,  or  in  those  duties  to  one  another 
and  to  themselves,  which  have  a  daily  and  hourly 
practical  interest.  That  children  take  kindly  to 
elementary  science  and  art  no  one  can  doubt 
who  has  tried  the  experiment  properly.  And  if 
Bible-reading  is  not  accompanied  by  constraint 
and  solemnity,  as  if  it  were  a  sacramental  operation, 
I  do  not  believe  there  is  anything  in  which 
children  take  more  pleasure.  At  least  I  know 
that  some  of  the  pleasantest  recollections  of  my 
childhood  are  connected  with  the  voluntary  study 
of  an  ancient  Bible  which  belonged  to  my  grand- 
mother. There  were  splendid  pictures  in  it,  to  be 
sure ;  but  I  recollect  little  or  nothing  about  them 
save  a  portrait  of  the  high  priest  in  his  vestments. 
What  come  vividly  back  on  my  mind  are  remem- 
brances of  my  delight  in  the  histories  of  Joseph 
and  of  David  ;  and  of  my  keen  appreciation  of  the 
chivalrous  kindness  of  Abraham  in  his*  dealing 


402          THE  SCHOOL  BOARDS  XV 

with  Lot.  Like  a  sudden  flash  there  returns  back 
upon  me,  my  utter  scorn  of  the  pettifogging  mean- 
ness of  Jacob,  and  my  sympathetic  grief  over  the 
heartbreaking  lamentation  of  the  cheated  Esau, 
"  Hast  thou  not  a  blessing  for  me  also,  O  my 
father  ? "  And  I  see,  as  in  a  cloud,  pictures 
of  the  grand  phantasmagoria  of  the  Book  of  Reve- 
lation. 

I  enumerate,  as  they  issue,  the  childish  inpres- 
sions  which  come  crowding  out  of  the  pigeon-holes 
in  my  brain,  in  which  they  have  lain  almost 
undisturbed  for  forty  years.  I  prize  them  as  an 
evidence  that  a  child  of  five  or  six  years  old,  left 
to  his  own  devices,  may  be  deeply  interested  in 
the  Bible,  and  draw  sound  moral  sustenance  from  it. 
And  I  rejoice  that  I  was  left  to  deal  with  the 
Bible  alone;  for  if  I  had  had  some  theological 
"  explainer "  at  my  side,  he  might  have  tried,  as 
such  do,  to  lessen  my  indignation  against  Jacob, 
and  thereby  have  warped  my  moral  sense  for  ever  ; 
while  the  great  apocalyptic  spectacle  of  the  ulti- 
mate triumph  of  right  and  justice  might  have  been 
turned  to  the  base  purposes  of  a  pious  lampooner 
of  the  Papacy. 

And  as  to  the  second  objection — costliness — 
the  reply  is,  first,  that  the  rate  and  the  Parlia- 
mentary grant  together  ought  to  be  enough,  con- 
sidering that  science  and  art  teaching  is  already 
provided  for ;  and,  secondly,  that  if  they  are  not, 
it  may  be  well  for  the  educational  parliament  to 


XV  THE  SCHOOL  BOARDS          403 

consider  what  has  become  of  those  endowments 
which  were  originally  intended  to  be  devoted, 
more  or  less  largely,  to  the  education  of  the 
poor. 

When  the  monasteries  were  spoiled,  some  of 
their  endowments  were  applied  to  the  foundation 
of  cathedrals ;  and  in  all  such  cases  it  was  ordered 
that  a  certain  portion  of  the  endowment  should  be 
applied  to  the  purposes  of  education.  How  much  is 
so  applied  ?  Is  that  which  may  be  so  applied  given  to 
help  the  poor,  who  cannot  pay  for  education,  or 
does  it  virtually  subsidise  the  comparatively  rich, 
who  can  ?  How  are  Christ's  Hospital  and  Alleyn's 
foundation  securing  their  right  purposes,  or  how  far 
are  they  perverted  into  contrivances  for  affording 
relief  to  the  classes  who  can  afford  to  pay  for 
education  ?  How —  But  this  paper  is  already 
too  long,  and,  if  I  begin,  I  may  find  it  hard  to  stop 
asking  questions  of  this  kind,  which  after  all  are 
worthy  only  of  the  lowest  of  Radicals. 


XVI 

TECHNICAL  EDUCATION 

[1877] 

ANY  candid  observer  of  the  phenomena  of  modern 
society  will  readily  admit  that  bores  must  be 
classed  among  the  enemies  of  the  human  race ; 
andalittle  consideration  will  probably  lead  him  to  the 
further  admission,  that  no  species  of  that  extensive 
genus  of  noxious  creatures  is  more  objectionable 
than  the  educational  bore.  Convinced  as  I  am  of 
the  truth  of  this  great  social  generalisation,  it  is 
not  without  a  certain  trepidation  that  I  venture  to 
address  you  on  an  educational  topic.  For,  in  the 
course  of  the  last  ten  years,  to  go  back  no  farther, 
I  am  afraid  to  say  how  often  I  have  ventured  to 
speak  of  education,  from  that  given  in  the  primary 
schools  to  that  which  is  to  be  had  in  the  univer- 
sities and  medical  colleges ;  indeed,  the  only  part 
of  this  wide  region  into  which,  as  yet,  I  have  not 
adventured  is  that  into  which  I  propose  to  intrude 
to-day. 


XVI  TECHNICAL   EDUCATION  405 

Thus,  I  cannot  but  be  aware  that  I  am  danger- 
ously near  becoming  the  thing  which  all  men  fear 
and  fly.  But  I  have  deliberately  elected  to  ran 
the  risk.  For  when  you  did  me  the  honour  to  ask 
me  to  address  you,  an  unexpected  circumstance  had 
led  me  to  occupy  myself  seriously  with  the  question 
of  technical  education ;  and  I  had  acquired  the  con- 
viction that  there  are  few  subjects  respecting  which 
it  is  more  important  for  all  classes  of  the  commu- 
nity to  have  clear  and  just  ideas  than  this ;  while, 
certainly,  there  is  none  which  is  more  deserving 
of  attention  by  the  Working  Men's  Club  and 
Institute  Union. 

It  is  not  for  me  to  express  an  opinion  whether 
the  considerations,  which  I  am  about  to  submit  to 
you,  will  be  proved  by  experience  to  be  just  or  not, 
but  I  will  do  my  best  to  make  them  clear.  Among 
the  many  good  things  to  be  found  in  Lord  Bacon's 
works,  none  is  more  full  of  wisdom  than  the  saying 
that  "  truth  more  easily  comes  out  of  error  than 
out  of  confusion."  Clear  and  consecutive  wrong- 
thinking  is  the  next  best  thing  to  right-thinking ; 
so  that,  if  I  succeed  in  clearing  your  ideas  on  this 
topic,  I  shall  have  wasted  neither  your  time  nor 
my  own. 

"  Technical  education,"  in  the  sense  in  which  the 
term  is  ordinarily  used,  and  in  which  I  am  now 
employing  it,  means  that  sort  of  education  which 
is  specially  adapted  to  the  needs  of  men  whose 
business  in  life  it  is  to  pursue  some  kind  of  handi- 


406  TECHNICAL   EDUCATION  XVI 

craft ;  it  is,  in  fact,  a  fine  Greco-Latin  equivalent 
for  what  in  good  vernacular  English  would  be 
called  "  the  teaching  of  handicrafts."  And  prob- 
ably, at  this  stage  of  our  progress,  it  may  occur  to 
many  of  you  to  think  of  the  story  of  the  cobbler  and 
his  last,  and  to  say  to  yourselves,  though  you  will 
be  too  polite  to  put  the  question  openly  to  me, 
What  does  the  speaker  know  practically  about  this 
matter  ?  What  is  his  handicraft  ?  I  think  the 
question  is  a  very  proper  one,  and  unless  I  were 
prepared  to  answer  it,  I  hope  satisfactorily,  I 
should  have  chosen  some  other  theme. 

The  fact  is,  I  am,  and  have  been,  any  time  these 
thirty  years,  a  man  who  works  with  his  hands — a 
handicraftsman.  I  do  not  say  this  in  the  broadly 
metaphorical  sense  in  which  fine  gentlemen,  with 
all  the  delicacy  of  Agag  about  them,  trip  to  the 
hustings  about  election  time,  and  protest  that  they 
too  are  working  men.  I  really  mean  my  words  to 
be  taken  in  their  direct,  literal,  and  straightforward 
sense.  In  fact,  if  the  most  nimble-fingered  watch- 
maker among  you  will  come  to  my  workshop,  he 
may  set  me  to  put  a  watch  together,  and  I  will  set 
him  to  dissect,  say,  a  blackbeetle's  nerves.  I  do 
not  wish  to  vaunt,  but  I  am  inclined  to  think 
that  I  shall  manage  my  job  to  his  satisfaction 
sooner  than  he  will  do  his  piece  of  work  to  mine. 

In  truth,  anatomy,  which  is  my  handicraft,  is 
one  of  the  most  difficult  kinds  of  mechanical  labour, 
involving,  as  it  does,  not  only  lightness  and  dex- 


XVI  TECHNICAL   EDUCATION  407 

terity  of  hand,  but  sharp  eyes  and  endless  patience. 
And  you  must  not  suppose  that  my  particular 
branch  of  science  is  especially  distinguished  for  the 
demand  it  makes  upon  skill  in  manipulation.  A 
similar  requirement  is  made  upon  all  students  of 
physical  science.  The  astronomer,  the  electrician, 
the  chemist,  the  mineralogist,  the  botanist,  are 
constantly  called  upon  to  perform  manual  opera- 
tions of  exceeding  delicacy.  The  progress  of  all 
branches  of  physical  science  depends  upon  obser- 
vation, or  on  that  artificial  observation  which  is 
termed  experiment,  of  one  kind  or  another  ;  and,  the 
farther  we  advance,  the  more  practical  difficulties 
surround  the  investigation  of  the  conditions  of  the 
problems  offered  to  us ;  so  that  mobile  and  yet 
steady  hands,  guided  by  clear  vision,  are  more  and 
more  in  request  in  the  workshops  of  science. 

Indeed,  it  has  struck  me  that  one  of  the  grounds 
of  that  sympathy  between  the  handicraftsmen  of 
this  country  and  the  men  of  science,  by  which  it 
has  so  often  been  my  good  fortune  to  profit,  may, 
perhaps,  lie  here.  You  feel  and  we  feel  that, 
among  the  so-called  learned  folks,  we  alone  are 
brought  into  contact  with  tangible  facts  in  the  way 
that  you  are.  You  know  well  enough  that  it  is  one 
thing  to  write  a  history  of  chairs  in  general,  or  to 
address  a  poem  to  a  throne,  or  to  speculate  about 
the  occult  powers  of  the  chair  of  St.  Peter ;  and 
quite  another  thing  to  make  with  your  own  hands 
a  veritable  chair,  that  will  stand  fair  and  square, 

86 


408  TECHNICAL   EDUCATION  xvi 

and  afford  a  safe  and  satisfactory  resting-place  to 
a  frame  of  sensitiveness  and  solidity. 

So  it  is  with  us,  when  we  look  out  from  our 
scientific  handicrafts  upon  the  doings  of  our 
learned  brethren,  whose  work  is  untrammelled  by 
anything  "base  and  mechanical,"  as  handicrafts 
used  to  be  called  when  the  world  was  younger,  and, 
in  some  respects,  less  wise  than  now.  We  take  the 
greatest  interest  in  their  pursuits  ;  we  are  edified 
by  their  histories  and  are  charmed  with  their 
poems,  which  sometimes  illustrate  so  remarkably 
the  powers  of  man's  imagination ;  some  of  us 
admire  and  even  humbly  try  to  follow  them  in 
their  high  philosophical  excursions,  though  we  know 
the  risk  of  being  snubbed  by  the  inquiry  whether 
grovelling  dissectors  of  monkeys  and  blackbeetles 
can  hope  to  enter  into  the  empyreal  kingdom  of 
speculation.  But  still  we  feel  that  our  business  is 
different ;  humbler  if  you  will,  though  the  dimi- 
nution of  dignity  is,  perhaps,  compensated  by  the 
increase  of  reality ;  and  that  we,  like  you,  have  to 
get  our  work  done  in  a  region  where  little  avails,  if 
the  power  of  dealing  with  practical  tangible  facts  is 
wanting.  You  know  that  clever  talk  touching 
joinery  will  not  make  a  chair  ;  and  I  know  that  it  is 
of  about  as  much  value  in  the  physical  sciences. 
Mother  Nature  is  serenely  obdurate  to  honeyed 
words ;  only  those  who  understand  the  ways  of 
things,  and  can  silently  and  effectually  handle 
them,  get  any  good  out  of  her. 


XVI  TECHNICAL   EDUCATION  409 

And  now,  having,  as  I  hope,  justified  my  assump- 
tion of  a  place  among  handicraftsmen,  and  put 
myself  right  with  you  as  to  my  qualification,  from 
practical  knowledge,  to  speak  about  technical 
education,  I  will  proceed  to  lay  before  you  the 
results  of  my  experience  as  a  teacher  of  a  handi- 
craft, and  tell  you  what  sort  of  education  I  should 
think  best  adapted  for  a  boy  whom  one  wanted  to 
make  a  professional  anatomist. 

I  should  say,  in  the  first  place,  let  him  have  a 
good  English  elementary  education.  I  do  not 
mean  that  he  shall  be  able  to  pass  in  such  and 
such  a  standard — that  may  or  may  not  be  an 
equivalent  expression — but  that  his  teaching  shall 
have  been  such  as  to  have  given  him  command  of 
the  common  implements  of  learning  and  to  have 
created  a  desire  for  the  things  of  the  under- 
standing. 

Further,  I  should  like  him  to  know  the  ele- 
ments of  physical  science,  and  especially  of  physics 
and  chemistry,  and  I  should  take  care  that  this 
elementary  knowledge  was  real.  I  should  like 
my  aspirant  to  be  able  to  read  a  scientific  treatise 
in  Latin,  French,  or  German,  because  an  enormous 
amount  of  anatomical  knowledge  is  locked  up  in 
those  languages.  And  especially,  I  should  require 
some  ability  to  draw — I  do  not  mean  artistically, 
for  that  is  a  gift  which  may  be  cultivated  but  can- 
not be  learned,  but  with  fair  accuracy.  I  will  not 
say  that  everybody  can  learn  even  this ;  for  the 


410  TECHNICAL   EDUCATION  xvi 

negative  development  of  the  faculty  of  drawing  in 
some  people  is  almost  miraculous.  Still  every- 
body, or  almost  everybody,  can  learn  to  write ; 
and,  as  writing  is  a  kind  of  drawing,  I  suppose 
that  the  majority  of  the  people  who  say  they  can- 
not draw,  and  give  copious  evidence  of  the  accu- 
racy of  their  assertion,  could  draw,  after  a  fashion, 
if  they  tried.  And  that  "  after  a  fashion  "  would 
be  better  than  nothing  for  my  purposes. 

Above  all  things,  let  my  imaginary  pupil  have 
preserved  the  freshness  and  vigour  of  youth  in  his 
mind  as  well  as  his  body.  The  educational 
abomination  of  desolation  of  the  present  day  is  the 
stimulation  of  young  people  to  work  at  high 
pressure  by  incessant  competitive  examinations. 
Some  wise  man  (who  probably  was  not  an  early 
riser)  has  said  of  early  risers  in  general,  that  they 
are  conceited  all  the  forenoon  and  stupid  all  the 
afternoon.  Now  whether  this  is  true  of  early 
risers  in  the  common  acceptation  of  the  word  or 
not,  I  will  not  pretend  to  say  ;  but  it  is  too  often 
true  of  the  unhappy  children  who  are  forced  to 
rise  too  early  in  their  classes.  They  are  conceited 
all  the  forenoon  of  life,  and  stupid  all  its  afternoon. 
The  vigour  and  freshness,  which  should  have  been 
stored  up  for  the  purposes  of  the  hard  struggle 
for  existence  in  practical  life,  have  been  washed 
out  of  them  by  precocious  mental  debauchery — 
by  book  gluttony  and  lesson  bibbing.  Their 
faculties  are  worn  out  by  the  strain  put  upon  their 


XVI  TECHNICAL   EDUCATION  411 

callow  brains,  and  they  are  demoralised  by  worth- 
less childish  triumphs  before  the  real  work  of  life 
begins.  I  have  no  compassion  for  sloth,  but  youth 
has  more  need  for  intellectual  rest  than  age  ;  and 
the  cheerfulness,  the  tenacity  of  purpose,  the  power 
of  work  which  make  many  a  successful  man  what 
he  is,  must  often  be  placed  to  the  credit,  not  of 
his  hours  of  industry,  but  to  that  of  his  hours  of 
idleness,  in  boyhood.  Even  the  hardest  worker 
of  us  all,  if  he  has  to  deal  with  anything  above 
mere  details,  will  do  well,  now  and  again,  to  let 
his  brain  lie  fallow  for  a  space.  The  next  crop  of 
thought  will  certainly  be  all  the  fuller  in  the  ear 
and  the  weeds  fewer. 

This  is  the  sort  of  education  which  I  should 
like  any  one  who  was  going  to  devote  himself  to 
my  handicraft  to  undergo.  As  to  knowing  any- 
thing about  anatomy  itself,  on  the  whole  I  would 
rather  he  left  that  alone  until  he  took  it  up 
seriously  in  my  laboratory.  It  is  hard  work 
enough  to  teach,  and  I  should  not  like  to  have 
superadded  to  that  the  possible  need  of  un- 
teaching. 

Well,  but,  you  will  say,  this  is  Hamlet  with  the 
Prince  of  Denmark  left  out;  your  "technical 
education "  is  simply  a  good  education,  with 
more  attention  to  physical  science,  to  draw- 
ing, and  to  modern  languages  than  is  com- 
mon, and  there  is  nothing  specially  technical 
about  it. 


TECHNICAL  EDUCATION  XV1 

Exactly  so ;  that  remark  takes  us  straight  to 
the  heart  of  what  I  have  to  say  ;  which  is,  that, 
in  my  judgment,  the  preparatory  education  of 
the  handicraftsman  ought  to  have  nothing  of 
what  is  ordinarily  understood  by  "technical" 
about  it. 

The  workshop  is  the  only  real  school  for  a 
handicraft.  The  education  which  precedes  that 
of  the  workshop  should  be  entirely  devoted  to  the 
strengthening  of  the  body,  the  elevation  of  the 
moral  faculties,  and  the  cultivation  of  the  intelli- 
gence ;  and,  especially,  to  the  imbuing  the  mind 
with  a  broad  and  clear  view  of  the  laws  of  that 
natural  world  with  the  components  of  which  the 
handicraftsman  will  have  to  deal.  And,  the  earlier 
the  period  of  life  at  which  the  handicraftsman  has 
to  enter  into  actual  practice  of  his  craft,  the  more 
important  is  it  that  he  should  devote  the  precious 
hours  of  preliminary  education  to  things  of  the 
mind,  which  have  no  direct  and  immediate  bearing 
on  his  branch  of  industry,  though  they  lie  at  the 
foundation  of  all  realities. 

Now  let  me  apply  the  lessons  I  have  learned 
from  my  handicraft  to  yours.  If  any  of  you  were 
obliged  to  take  an  apprentice,  I  suppose  you 
would  like  to  get  a  good  healthy  lad,  ready  and 
willing  to  learn,  handy,  and  with  his  fingers  not 
all  thumbs,  as  the  saying  goes.  You  would  like 
that  he  should  read,  write,  and  cipher  well ;  and, 


XVI  TECHNICAL   EDUCATION  413 

if  you  were  an  intelligent  master,  and  your  trade 
involved  the  application  of  scientific  principles,  as 
so  many  trades  do,  you  would  like  him  to  know 
enough  of  the  elementary  principles  of  science  to 
understand  what  was  going  on.  I  suppose  that, 
in  nine  trades  out  of  ten,  it  would  be  useful  if  he 
could  draw  ;  and  many  of  you  must  have  lamented 
your  inability  to  find  out  for  yourselves  what 
foreigners  are  doing  or  have  done.  So  that  some 
knowledge  of  French  and  German  might,  in  many 
cases,  be  very  desirable. 

So  it  appears  to  me  that  what  you  want  is  pretty 
much  what  I  want ;  and  the  practical  question  is, 
How  you  are  to  get  what  you  need,  under  the  actual 
limitations  and  conditions  of  life  of  handicraftsmen 
in  this  country  ? 

I  think  I  shall  have  the  assent  both  of  the  em- 
ployers of  labour  and  of  the  employed  as  to  one  of 
these  limitations ;  which  is,  that  no  scheme  of 
technical  education  is  likely  to  be  seriously  enter- 
tained which  will  delay  the  entrance  of  boys  into 
working  life,  or  prevent  them  from  contributing  to- 
wards their  own  support,  as  early  as  they  do  at 
present.  Not  only  do  I  believe  that  any  such 
scheme  could  not  be  carried  out,  but  I  doubt  its 
desirableness,  even  if  it  were  practicable. 

The  period  between  childhood  and  manhood  is 
full  of  difficulties  and  dangers,  under  the  most 
favourable  circumstances;  and,  even  among  the 
well-to-do,  who  can  afford  to  surround  their  children 


TECHNICAL   EDUCATION  X71 

with  the  most  favourable  conditions,  examples  of  a 
career  ruined,  before  it  has  well  begun,  are  but  too 
frequent.  Moreover,  those  who  have  to  live  by 
labour  must  be  shaped  to  labour  early.  The  colt 
that  is  left  at  grass  too  long  makes  but  a  sorry 
draught-horse,  though  his  way  of  life  does  not  bring 
him  within  the  reach  of  artificial  temptations.  Per- 
haps the  most  valuable  result  of  all  education  is  the 
ability  to  make  yourself  do  the  thing  you  have  to 
do,  when  it  ought  to  be  done,  whether  you  like  it  or 
not ;  it  is  the  first  lesson  that  ought  to  be  learned  ; 
and,  however  early  a  man's  training  begins,  it  is 
probably  the  last  lesson  that  he  learns  thoroughly. 

There  is  another  reason,  to  which  I  have  already 
adverted,  and  which  I  would  reiterate,  why  any  ex- 
tension of  the  time  devoted  to  ordinary  school- 
work  is  undesirable.  In  the  newly-awakened  zeal 
for  edu  Cation,  we  run  some  risk  of  forgetting  the 
truth  that  while  under-instruction  is  a.  bad  thing, 
over-instruction  may  possibly  be  a  worse. 

Success  in  any  kind  of  practical  life  is  not  de- 
pendent solely,  or  indeed  chiefly,  upon  knowledge. 
Even  in  the  learned  professions,  knowledge 
alone,  is  of  less  consequence  than  people  are  apt 
to  suppose.  And.  if  much  expenditure  of  bodily 
energy  is  involved  in  the  day's  work,  mere  know- 
ledge  is  of  stillless  importance  when  weighed  against 
the  probable  cost  of  its  acquirement.  To  do  a  fair 
day's  work  with  his  hands,  a  man  needs,  above  all 
things, health,  strength,  and  the  patience  and  cheer- 


XVI  TECHNICAL    EDUCATION  415 

fulness  which,  if  they  do  not  always  accompany 
these  blessings,  can  hardly  in  the  nature  of  things 
exist  without  them ;  to  which  we  must  add 
honesty  of  purpose  and  a  pride  in  doing  what  is 
done  well. 

A  good  handicraftsman  can  get  on  very  well 
without  genius,  but  he  will  fare  badly  without  a 
reasonable  share  of  that  which  is  a  more  useful 
possession  for  workaday  life,  namely,  mother-wit ; 
and  he  will  be  all  the  better  for  a  real  knowledge, 
however  limited,  of  the  ordinary  laws  of  nature, 
and  especially  of  those  which  apply  to  his  own 
business. 

Instruction  carried  so  far  as  to  help  the  scholar 
to  turn  his  store  of  mother- wit  to  account,  to 
acquire  a  fair  amount  of  sound  elementary  know- 
ledge, and  to  use  his  hands  and  eyes ;  while  leaving 
him  fresh,  vigorous,  and  with  a  sense  of  the 
dignity  of  his  own  calling,  whatever  it  may  be,  if 
fairly  and  honestly  pursued,  cannot  fail  to  be  of 
invaluable  service  to  all  those  who  come  under  its 
influence. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  if  school  instruction  is 
carried  so  far  as  to  encourage  bookishness ;  if  the 
ambition  of  the  scholar  is  directed,  not  to  the  gain- 
ing of  knowledge,  but  to  the  being  able  to  pass 
examinations  successfully;  especially  if  encourage- 
ment is  given  to  the  mischievous  delusion  that 
brainwork  is,  in  itself,  and  apart  from  its  quality, 
a  nobler  or  more  respectable  thing  than  handiwork 


TECHNICAL   EDUCATION  XVI 

— such  education  may  be  a  deadly  mischief  to  the 
workman,  and  lead  to  the  rapid  ruin  of  the  indus- 
tries it  is  intended  to  serve. 

I  know  that  I  am  expressing  the  opinion  of 
some  of  the  largest  as  well  as  the  most  enlightened 
employers  of  labour,  when  I  say  that  there  is  a  real 
danger  that,  from  the  extreme  of  no  education,  we 
may  run  to  the  other  extreme  of  over-education  of 
handicraftsmen.  And  I  apprehend  that  what  is 
true  for  the  ordinary  hand-worker  is  true  for  the 
foreman.  Activity,  probity,  knowledge  of  men, 
ready  mother-wit,  supplemented  by  a  good  know- 
ledge of  the  general  principles  involved  in  his 
business,  are  the  making  of  a  good  foreman.  If  he 
possess  these  qualities,  no  amount  of  learning  will 
fit  him  better  for  his  position ;  while  the  course  of 
life  and  the  habit  of  mind  required  for  the  at- 
tainment of  such  learning  may,  in  various  direct 
and  indirect  ways,  act  as  direct  disqualifications 
for  it. 

Keeping  in  mind,  then,  that  the  two  things  to 
be  avoided  are,  the  delay  of  the  entrance  of  boys 
into  practical  life,  and  the  substitution  of  exhausted 
bookworms  for  shrewd,  handy  men,  in  our  works 
and  factories,  let  us  consider  what  may  be  wisely 
and  safely  attempted  in  the  way  of  improving  the 
education  of  the  handicraftsman. 

First,  I  look  to  the  elementary  schools  now 
happily  established  all  over  the  country.  I  am  not 
going  to  criticise  or  find  fault  with  them ;  on  the 


XVI  TECHNICAL  EDUCATION  417 

contrary,  their  establishment  seems  to  me  to  be  the 
most  important  and  the  most  beneficial  result  of 
the  corporate  action  of  the  people  in  our  day.  A 
great  deal  is  said  of  British  interests  just  now,  but, 
depend  upon  it,  that  no  Eastern  difficulty  needs 
our  intervention  as  a  nation  so  seriously,  as  the 
putting  down  both  the  Bashi-Bazouks  of  ignorance 
and  the  Cossacks  of  sectarianism  at  home.  What 
has  already  been  achieved  in  these  directions  is  a 
great  thing ;  you  must  have  lived  some  time  to 
know  how  great.  An  education,  better  in  its 
processes,  better  in  its  substance,  than  that  which 
was  accessible  to  the  great  majority  of  well-to-do 
Britons  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago,  is  now  obtain- 
able by  every  child  in  the  land.  Let  any  man  of 
my  age  go  into  an  ordinary  elementary  school,  and 
unless  he  was  unusually  fortunate  in  his  youth,  he 
will  tell  you  that  the  educational  method,  the  in- 
telligence, patience,  and  good  temper  on  the 
teacher's  part,  which  are  now  at  the  disposal  of 
the  veriest  waifs  and  wastrels  of  society,  are  things 
of  which  he  had  no  experience  in  those  costly, 
middle-class  schools,  which  were  so  ingeniously 
contrived  as  to  combine  all  the  evils  and  short- 
comings of  the  great  public  schools  with  none  of 
their  advantages.  Many  a  man,  whose  so-called 
education  cost  a  good  deal  of  valuable  money  and 
occupied  many  a  year  of  invaluable  time,  leaves  the 
inspection  of  a  well-ordered  elementary  school 
devoutly  wishing  that,  in  his  young  days,  he  had 


418  TECHNICAL   EDUCATION  XVI 

had  the  chance  of  being  as  well  taught  as  these 
boys  and  girls  are. 

But  while  in  view  of  such  an  advance  in  general 
education,  I  willingly  obey  the  natural  impulse  to 
be  thankful,  I  am  not  willing  altogether  to  rest. 
I  want  to  see  instruction  in  elementary  science 
and  in  art  more  thoroughly  incorporated  in  the 
educational  system.  At  present,  it  is  being 
administered  by  driblets,  as  if  it  were  a  potent 
medicine,  "  a  few  drops  to  be  taken  occasionally  in 
a  teaspoon."  Every  year  I  notice  that  that 
earnest  and  untiring  friend  of  yours  and  of  mine, 
Sir  John  Lubbock,  stirs  up  the  Government  of  the 
day  in  the  House  of  Commons  on  this  subject  ; 
and  also  that,  every  year,  he,  and  the  few  mem- 
bers of  the  House  of  Commons,  such  as  Dr.  Play- 
fair,  who  sympathise  with  him,  are  met  with  ex- 
pressions of  warm  admiration  for  science  in 
general,  and  reasons  at  large  for  doing  nothing  in 
particular.  But  now  that  Mr.  Forster,  to  whom 
the  education  of  the  country  owes  so  much,  has 
announced  his  conversion  to  the  right  faith,  I 
begin  to  hope  that,  sooner  or  later,  things  will 
mend. 

I  have  given  what  I  believe  to  be  a  good 
reason  for  the  assumption,  that  the  keeping  at 
school  of  boys,  who  are  to  be  handicraftsmen, 
beyond  the  age  of  thirteen  or  fourteen  is  neither 
practicable  nor  desirable ;  and,  as  it  is  quite  cer- 
tain, that,  with  justice  to  other  and  no  less  import- 


XVI  TECHNICAL  EDUCATION  419 

ant  branches  of  education,  nothing  more  than  the 
rudiments  of  science  and  art  teaching  can  be 
introduced  into  elementary  schools,  we  must  seek 
elsewhere  for  a  supplementary  training  in  these' 
subjects,  and,  if  need  be,  in  foreign  languages, 
which  may  go  on  after  the  workman's  life  has 
begun. 

The  means  of  acquiring  the  scientific  and 
artistic  part  of  this  training  already  exists  in  full 
working  order,  in  the  first  place,  in  the  classes  of 
the  Science  and  Art  Department,  which  are,  for 
the  most  part,  held  in  the  evening,  so  as  to  be 
accessible  to  all  who  choose  to  avail  themselves  of 
them  after  working  hours.  The  great  advantage 
of  these  classes  is  that  they  bring  the  means  of 
instruction  to  the  doors  of  the  factories  and  work- 
shops ;  that  they  are  no  artificial  creations,  but  by 
their  very  existence  prove  the  desire  of  the  people 
for  them  ;  and  finally,  that  they  admit  of  indefinite 
development  in  proportion  as  they  are  wanted.  I 
have  often  expressed  the  opinion,  and  I  repeat  it 
here,  that,  during  the  eighteen  years  they 
have  been  in  existence  these  classes  have  done 
incalculable  good  ;  and  I  can  say,  of  my  own  know- 
ledge, that  the  Department  spares  no  pains  and 
trouble  in  trying  to  increase  their  usefulness  and 
ensure  the  soundness  of  their  work. 

No  one  knows  better  than  my  friend  Colonel 
Donnelly,  to  whose  clear  views  and  great  adminis- 
trative abilities  so  much  of  the  successful  working 


420  TECHNICAL   EDUCATION  xvi 

of  the  science  classes  is  due,  that  there  is  much  to 
be  done  before  the  system  can  be  said  to  be 
thoroughly  satisfactory.  The  instruction  given 
needs  to  be  made  more  systematic  and  especially 
more  practical ;  the  teachers  are  of  very  unequal 
excellence,  and  not  a  few  stand  much  in  need  of 
instruction  themselves,  not  only  in  the  subject 
which  they  teach,  but  in  the  objects  for  which 
they  teach.  I  dare  say  you  have  heard  of  that 
proceeding,  reprobated  by  all  true  sportsmen, 
which  is  called  "  shooting  for  the  pot."  Well, 
there  is  such  a  thing  as  "  teaching  for  the  pot  " — 
teaching,  that  is,  not  that  your  scholar  may  know, 
bub  that  he  may  count  for  payment  among  those 
who  pass  the  examination  ;  and  there  are  some 
teachers,  happily  not  many,  who  have  yet  to  learn 
that  the  examiners  of  the  Department  regard  them 
as  poachers  of  the  worst  description. 

Without  presuming  in  any  way  to  speak  in  the 
name  of  the  Department,  I  think  I  may  say,  as  a 
matter  which  has  come  under  my  own  observation, 
that  it  is  doing  its  best  to  meet  all  these  difficulties. 
It  systematically  promotes  practical  instruction  in 
the  classes ;  it  affords  facilities  to  teachers  who 
desire  to  learn  their  business  thoroughly ;  and  it 
is  always  ready  to  aid  in  the  suppression  of  pot- 
teaching. 

All  this  is,  as  you  may  imagine,  highly  satis- 
factory to  me.  I  see  that  spread  of  scientific 
education,  about  which  I  have  so  often  permitted 


XVI  TECHNICAL   EDUCATION  421 

myself  to  worry  the  public,  become,  for  all  practical 
purposes,  an  accomplished  fact.  Grateful  as  I  arn 
for  all  that  is  now  being  done,  in  the  same  direc- 
tion, in  our  higher  schools  and  universities,  I  have 
ceased  to  have  any  anxiety  about  the  wealthier 
classes.  Scientific  knowledge  is  spreading  by 
what  the  alchemists  called  a  "  distillatio  per 
ascensum  ;  "  and  nothing  now  can  prevent  it  from 
continuing  to  distil  upwards  and  permeate  English 
society,  until,  in  the  remote  future,  there  shall  be 
no  member  of  the  legislature  who  does  not  know 
as  much  of  science  as  an  elementary  school-boy ; 
and  even  the  heads  of  houses  in  our  venerable 
seats  of  learning  shall  acknowledge  that  natural 
science  is  not  merely  a  sort  of  University  back- 
door through  which  inferior  men  may  get  at  their 
degrees.  Perhaps  this  apocalyptic  vision  is  a 
little  wild  ;  and  I  feel  I  ought  to  ask  pardon  for 
an  outbreak  of  enthusiasm,  which,  I  assure  you,  is 
not  my  commonest  failing. 

I  have  said  that  the  Government  is  already  doing 
a  great  deal  in  aid  of  that  kind  of  technical  edu- 
cation for  handicraftsmen  which,  to  my  mind,  is 
alone  worth  seeking.  Perhaps  it  is  doing  as  much 
as  it  ought  to  do,  even  in  this  direction.  Certainly 
there  is  another  kind  of  help  of  the  most  important 
character,  for  which  we  may  look  elsewhere  than 
to  the  Government.  The  great  mass  of  mankind 
have  neither  the  liking,  nor  the  aptitude,  for 
either  literary,  or  scientific,  or  artistic  pursuits ;  nor, 


422  TECHNICAL   EDUCATION  xvi 

indeed,  for  excellence  of  any  sort.  Their  ambition 
is  to  go  through  life  with  moderate  exertion  and  a 
fair  share  of  ease,  doing  common  things  in  a  com- 
mon way.  And  a  great  blessing  and  comfort  it  is 
that  the  majority  of  men  are  of  this  mind  ;  for  the 
majority  of  things  to  be  done  are  common  things, 
and  are  quite  well  enough  done  when  commonly 
done.  The  great  end  of  life  is  not  knowledge  but 
action.  What  men  need  is,  as  much  knowledge  as 
they  can  assimilate  and  organise  into  a  basis  for 
action;  give  them  more  and  it  may  become 
injurious.  One  knows  people  who  are  as  heavy 
and  stupid  from  undigested  learning  as  others  are 
from  over-fulness  of  meat  and  drink.  But  a  small 
percentage  of  the  population  is  born  with  that  most 
excellent  quality,  a  desire  for  excellence,  or  with 
special  aptitudes  of  some  sort  or  another;  Mr. 
Galton  tells  us  that  not  more  than  one  in  four  thou- 
sand may  be  expected  to  attain  distinction,  and  not 
more  than  one  in  a  million  some  share  of  that 
intensity  of  instinctive  aptitude,  that  burning 
thirst  for  excellence,  which  is  called  genius. 

Now,  the  most  important  object  of  all  educa- 
tional schemes  is  to  catch  these  exceptional  people, 
and  turn  them  to  account  for  the  good  of  society. 
No  man  can  say  where  they  will  crop  up ;  like 
their  opposites,  the  fools  and  knaves,  they  appear 
sometimes  in  the  palace,  and  sometimes  in  the 
hovel ;  but  the  great  thing  to  be  aimed  at,  I  was 
almost  going  to  say  the  most  important  end  of  all 


X7I  TECHNICAL   EDUCATION"  423 

social  arrangements,  is  to  keep  these  glorious  sports 
of  Nature  from  being  either  corrupted  by  luxury 
or  starved  by  poverty,  and  to  put  them  into  the 
position  in  which  they  can  do  the  work  for  which 
they  are  especially  fitted. 

Thus,  if  a  lad  in  an  elementary  school  showed 
signs  of  special  capacity,  I  would  try  to  provide 
him  with  the  means  of  continuing  his  education 
after  his  daily  working  life  had  begun ;  if  in  the 
evening  classes  he  developed  special  capabilities 
in  the  direction  of  science  or  of  drawing,  I  would 
try  to  secure  him  an  apprenticeship  to  some  trade 
in  which  those  powers  would  have  applicability. 
Or,  if  he  chose  to  become  a  teacher,  he  should  have 
the  chance  of  so  doing.  Finally,  to  the  lad  of 
genius,  the  one  in  a  million,  I  would  make  accessi- 
ble the  highest  and  most  complete  training  the 
country  could  afford.  Whatever  that  might  cost, 
depend  upon  it  the  investment  would  be  a  good 
one.  I  weigh  my  words  when  I  say  that  if  the 
nation  could  purchase  a  potential  Watt,  or  Davy, 
or  Faraday,  at  the  cost  of  a  hundred  thousand 
pounds  down,  he  would  be  dirt-cheap  at  the  money. 
It  is  a  mere  commonplace  and  everyday  piece  of 
knowledge,  that  what  these  three  men  did  has 
produced  untold  millions  of  wealth,  in  the  narrow- 
est economical  sense  of  the  word. 

Therefore,  as  the  sum  and  crown  of  what  is  to  be 
done  for  technical  education,  I  look  to  the  provision 
of  a  machinery  for  winnowing  out  the  capacities 
87 


TECHNICAL   EDUCATION  XVI 

and  giving  them  scope.  When  I  was  a  member 
of  the  London  School  Board,  I  said,  in  the  course 
of  a  speech,  that  our  business  was  to  provide  a 
ladder,  reaching  from  the  gutter  to  the  university, 
along  which  every  child  in  the  three  kingdoms 
should  have  the  chance  of  climbing  as  far  as  he 
was  fit  to  go.  This  phrase  was  so  much  bandied 
about  at  the  time,  that,  to  say  truth,  I  am  rather 
tired  of  it ;  but  I  know  of  no  other  which  so  fully 
expresses  my  belief,  not  only  about  education  in 
general,  but  about  technical  education  in  particu- 
lar. 

The  essential  foundation  of  all  the  organisation 
needed  for  the  promotion  of  education  among 
handicraftsmen  will,  I  believe,  exist  in  this  country, 
when  every  working  lad  can  feel  that  society  has 
done  as  much  as  lies  in  its  power  to  remove  all 
needless  and  artificial  obstacles  from  his  path; 
that  there  is  no  barrier,  except  such  as  exists  in 
the  nature  of  things,  between  himself  and  what- 
ever place  in  the  social  organisation  he  is  fitted  to 
fill ;  and,  more  than  this,  that,  if  he  has  capacity 
and  industry,  a  hand  is  held  out  to  help  him 
along  any  path  which  is  wisely  and  honestly 
chosen. 

I  have  endeavoured  to  point  out  to  you  that  a 
great  deal  of  such  an  organisation  already  exists  ; 
and  I  am  glad  to  be  able  to  add  that  there  is  a 
good  prospect  that  what  is  wanting  will,  before  long, 
be  supplemented. 


XVI  TECHNICAL  EDUCATION  425 

Those  powerful  and  wealthy  societies,  the  livery 
companies  of  the  City  of  London,  remembering 
that  they  are  the  heirs  and  representatives  of  the 
trade  guilds  of  the  Middle  Ages,  are  interesting 
themselves  in  the  question.  So  far  back  as  1872 
the  Society  of  Arts  organised  a  system  of  instruc- 
tion in  the  technology  of  arts  and  manufactures, 
for  persons  actually  employed  in  factories  and 
workshops,  who  desired  to  extend  and  improve  their 
knowledge  of  the  theory  and  practice  of  their  par- 
ticular avocations;1  and  a  considerable  subsidy,  in 
aid  of  the  efforts  of  the  Society,  was  liberally 
granted  by  the  Cloth  workers'  Company.  We  have 
here  the  hopeful  commencement  of  a  rational  or- 
ganisation for  the  promotion  of  excellence  among 
handicraftsmen.  Quite  recently,  other  of  the 
livery  companies  have  determined  upon  giving 
their  powerful,  and,  indeed,  almost  boundless,  aid 
to  the  improvement  of  the  teaching  of  handicrafts. 
They  have  already  gone  so  far  as  to  appoint  a 
committee  to  act  for  them ;  and  I  betray  no  confi- 
dence in  adding  that,  some  time  since,  the  com- 
mittee sought  the  advice  and  assistance  of  several 
persons,  myself  among  the  number. 

Of  course  I  cannot  tell  you  what  may  be  the  result 
of  the  deliberations  of  the  committee ;  but  we  may  all 
fairly  hope  that,  before  long,  steps  which  will  have  a 
weighty  and  a  lasting  influence  on  the  growth  and 

1  See  the  Programme   for  1878,   issued  by  the    Society  of 
Arts,  p.  14. 


426  TECHNICAL  EDUCATION  xvi 

spread  of  sound  and  thorough  teaching  among 
the  handicraftsmen1  of  this  country  will  be 
taken  by  the  livery  companies  of  London. 

[This  hope  has  been  fully  justified  by  the  es- 
tablishment of  the  Cowper  Street  Schools,  and 
that  of  the  Central  Institution  of  the  City  and 
Guilds  of  London  Institute,  September,  1881.] 

1  It  is  perhaps  advisable  to  remark  that  the  important  ques- 
tion of  the  professional  education  of  managers  of  industrial 
works  is  not  touched  in  the  foregoing  remarks. 


XVII 

ADDRESS  ON  BEHALF  OF  THE 

NATIONAL  ASSOCIATION  FOR  THE  PRO* 

MOTION  OF  TECHNICAL  EDUCATION 

[1887.] 

MR.  MAYOR  AND  GENTLEMEN,— It  must  be  a 
matter  of  sincere  satisfaction  to  those  who,  like 
myself,  have  for  many  years  past  been  convinced 
of  the  vital  importance  of  technical  education  to 
this  country  to  see  that  that  subject  is  now  being 
taken  up  by  some  of  the  most  important  of  our 
manufacturing  towns.  The  evidence  which  is 
afforded  of  the  public  interest  in  the  matter  by 
such  meetings  as  those  at  Liverpool  and  New- 
castle, and,  last  but  not  least,  by  that  at  which  I 
have  the  honour  to  be  present  to-day,  may  con- 
vince us  all,  I  think,  that  the  question  has  passed 
out  of  the  region  of  speculation  into  that  of  action. 
I  need  hardly  say  to  any  one  here  that  the  task 
which  our  Association  contemplates  is  not  only 


428  TECHNICAL   EDUCATION  XVII 

one  of  primary  importance — I  may  say  of  vital  im- 
portance— to  the  welfare  of  the  country  ;  but  that 
it  is  one  of  great  extent  and  of  vast  difficulty. 
There  is  a  well-worn  adage  that  those  who  set 
out  upon  a  great  enterprise  would  do  well  to  count 
the  cost.  I  am  not  sure  that  this  is  always  true. 
I  think  that  some  of  the  very  greatest  enterprises 
in  this  world  have  been  carried  out  successfully 
simply  because  the  people  who  undertook  them 
did  not  count  the  cost ;  and  I  am  much  of  opinion 
that,  in  this  very  case,  the  most  instructive  con- 
sideration for  us  is  the  cost  of  doing  nothing.  But 
there  is  one  thing  that  is  perfectly  certain,  and  it 
is  that,  in  undertaking  all  enterprises,  one  of 
the  most  important  conditions  of  success  is  to 
have  a  perfectly  clear  comprehension  of  what 
you  want  to  do — to  have  that  before  your 
minds  before  you  set  out,  and  from  that 
point  of  view  to  consider  carefully  the  measures 
which  are  best  adapted  to  the  end. 

Mr.  Acland  has  just  given  you  an  excellent 
account  of  what  is  properly  and  strictly  understood 
by  technical  education;  but  I  venture  to  think 
that  the  purpose  of  this  Association  may  be  stated 
in  somewhat  broader  terms,  and  that  the  object  we 
have  in  view  is  the  development  of  the  industrial 
productivity  of  the  country  to  the  uttermost  limits 
consistent  with  social  welfare.  And  you  will 
observe  that,  in  thus  widening  the  definition  of 
our  object,  I  have  gone  no  further  than  the  Mayor 


XVII  TECHNICAL   EDUCATION  429 

in  his  speech,  when  he  not  obscurely  hinted — and 
most  justly  hinted — that  in  dealing  with  this 
question  there  are  other  matters  than  technical 
education,  in  the  strict  sense,  to  be  considered. 

It  would  be  extreme  presumption  on  my  part  if 
I  were  to  attempt  to  tell  an  audience  of  gentlemen 
intimately  acquainted  with  all  branches  of  industry 
and  commerce,  such  as  I  see  before  me,  in  what 
manner  the  practical  details  of  the  operations  that 
we  propose  are  to  be  carried  out.  I  am  absolutely 
ignorant  both  of  trade  and  of  commerce,  and  upon 
such  matters  I  cannot  venture  to  say  a  solitary 
word.  But  there  is  one  direction  in  which  I  think 
it  possible  I  may  be  of  service — not  much  perhaps, 
but  still  of  some, — because  this  matter,  in  the 
first  place,  involves  the  consideration  of  methods  of 
education  with  which  it  has  been  my  business  to 
occupy  myself  during  the  greater  part  of  my  life ; 
and,  in  the  second  place,  it  involves  attention  to 
some  of  those  broad  facts  and  laws  of  nature  with 
which  it  has  been  my  business  to  acquaint  myself 
to  the  best  of  my  ability.  And  what  I  think  may 
be  possible  is  this,  that  if  I  succeed  in  putting 
before  you — as  briefly  as  I  can,  but  in  clear  and  con- 
nected shape — what  strikes  me  as  the  programme 
that  we  have  eventually  to  carry  out,  and  what 
are  the  indispensable  conditions  of  success,  that 
that  proceeding,  whether  the  conclusions  at  which 
I  arrive  be  such  as  you  approve  or  as  you  disap- 
prove, will  nevertheless  help  to  clear  the  course. 


430  TECHNICAL   EDUCATION  xvil 

In  this  and  in  all  complicated  matters  we  must  re- 
member a  saying  of  Bacon,  which  may  be  freely 
translated  thus :  "  Consistent  error  is  very  often 
vastly  more  useful  than  muddle-headed  truth/' 
At  any  rate,  if  there  be  any  error  in  the  conclu- 
sions I  shall  put  before  you,  I  will  do  my  best  to 
make  the  error  perfectly  clear  and  plain. 

Now,  looking  at  the  question  of  what  we  want 
to  do  in  this  broad  and  general  way,  it  appears  to 
me  that  it  is  necessary  for  us,  in  the  first  place,  to 
amend  and  improve  our  system  of  primary  educa- 
tion .in  such  a  fashion  as  will  make  it  a  proper 
preparation  for  the  business  of  life.  In  the  second 
place,  I  think  we  have  to  consider  what  measures 
may  best  be  adopted  for  the  development  to  its 
uttermost  of  that  which  may  be  called  technical 
skill ;  and,  in  the  third  place,  I  think  we  have  to 
consider  what  other  matters  there  are  for  us  to  at- 
tend to,  what  other  arrangements  have  to  be  kept 
carefully  in  sight  in  order  that,  while  pursuing 
these  ends,  we  do  not  forget  that  which  is  the  end 
of  civil  existence,  I  mean  a  stable  social  state 
without  which  all  other  measures  are  merely 
futile,  and,  in  effect,  modes  of  going  faster  to 
ruin. 

You  are  aware — no  people  should  know  the  fact 
better  than  Manchester  people — that,  within  the 
last  seventeen  years,  a  vast  system  of  primary 
education  has  been  created  and  extended  over  the 
whole  country.  I  had  some  part  in  the  original 


XVII  TECHNICAL   EDUCATION  4ol 

organisation  of  this  system  in  London,  and  I  am 
glad  to  think  that,  after  all  these  years,  I  can  look 
back  upon  that  period  of  my  life  as  perhaps  the 
part  of  it  least  wasted. 

No  one  can  doubt  that  this  system  of  primary 
education  has  done  wonders  for  our  population ; 
but,  from  our  point  of  view,  I  do  not  think  any- 
body can  doubt  that  it  still  has  very  considerable 
defects.  It  has  the  defect  which  is  common  to  all 
the  educational  systems  which  we  have  inherited — 
it  is  too  bookish,  too  little  practical.  The  child  is 
brought  too  little  into  contact  with  actual  facts  and 
things,  and  as  the  system  stands  at  present  it  con- 
stitutes next  to  no  education  of  those  particular 
faculties  which  are  of  the  utmost  importance  to 
industrial  life — I  mean  the  faculty  of  observation, 
the  faculty  of  working  accurately,  of  dealing  with 
things  instead  of  with  words.  I  do  not  propose  to 
enlarge  upon  this  topic,  but  I  would  venture  to 
suggest  that  there  are  one  or  two  remedial  measures 
which  are  imperatively  needed  ;  indeed,  they  have 
already  been  alluded  to  by  Mr.  Acland.  Those 
which  strike  me  as  of  the  greatest  importance  are 
two,  and  the  first  of  them  is  the  teaching  of  draw- 
ing. In  my  judgment,  there  is  no  mode  of 
exercising  the  faculty  of  observation  and  the 
faculty  of  accurate  reproduction  of  that  which  is 
observed,  no  discipline  which  so  readily  tests  error 
in  these  matters,  as  drawing  properly  taught. 
And  by  that  I  do  not  mean  artistic  drawing ;  1 


432  TECHNICAL  EDUCATION  xvil 

mean  figuring  natural  objects  :  making  plans  and 
sections,  approaching  geometrical  rather  than 
artistic  drawing.  I  do  not  wish  to  exaggerate, 
but  I  declare  to  you  that,  in  my  judgment,  the 
child  who  has  been  taught  to  make  an  accurate 
elevation,  plan  and  section  of  a  pint  pot  has  had 
an  admirable  training  in  accuracy  of  eye  and  hand. 
I  am  not  talking  about  artistic  education.  That  is 
not  the  question.  Accuracy  is  the  foundation  of 
everything  else,  and  instruction  in  artistic  drawing 
is  something  which  may  be  put  off  till  a  later 
stage.  Nothing  has  struck  me  more  in  the  course 
of  my  life  than  the  loss  which  persons,  who  are 
pursuing  scientific  knowledge  of  any  kind,  sustain 
from  the  difficulties  which  arise  because  they 
never  have  been  taught  elementary  drawing; 
and  I  am  glad  to  say  that  in  Eton,  a  school  of 
whose  governing  body  I  have  the  honour  of  being 
a  member,  we  some  years  ago  made  drawing  im- 
perative on  the  whole  school. 

The  other  matter  in  which  we  want  some 
systematic  and  good  teaching  is  what  I  have 
hardly  a  name  for,  but  which  may  best  be  ex- 
plained as  a  sort  of  developed  object  lessons  such 
as  Mr.  Acland  adverted  to.  Anybody  who  knows 
his  business  in  science  can  make  anything  sub- 
servient to  that  purpose.  You  know  it  was  said  of 
Dean  Swift  that  he  could  write  an  admirable  poem 
upon  a  broomstick,  and  the  man  who  has  a  real 
knowledge  of  science  can  make  the  commonest  ob- 


XVII  TECHNICAL   EDUCATION  433 

ject  in  the  world  subservient  to  an  introduction  to 
the  principles  and  greater  truths  of  natural  know- 
ledge. It  is  in  that  way  that  your  science  must  be 
taught  if  it  is  to  be  of  real  service.  Do  not  suppose 
any  amount  of  book  work,  any  repetition  by  rote  of 
catechisms  and  other  abominations  of  that  kind 
are  of  value  for  our  object.  That  is  mere  wasting 
of  time.  But  take  the  commonest  object  and  lead 
the  child  from  that  foundation  to  such  truths  of  a 
higher  order  as  may  be  within  his  grasp.  With 
regard  to  drawing,  I  do  not  think  there  is  any 
practical  difficulty  ;  but  in  respect  to  the  scientific 
object  lessons  you  want  teachers  trained  in  a  man- 
ner different  from  that  which  now  prevails. 

If  it  is  found  practicable  to  add  further  training 
of  the  hand  and  eye  by  instruction  in  modelling  or 
in  simple  carpentry,  well  and  good.  But  I  should 
stop  at  this  point.  The  elementary  schools  are 
already  charged  with  quite  as  much  as  they  can 
do  properly  ;  and  I  do  not  believe  that  any  good 
can  come  of  burdening  them  with  special  tech- 
nical instruction.  Out  of  that,  I  think,  harm  would 
come. 

Now  let  me  pass  to  my  second  point,  which  is  the 
development  of  technical  skill.  Everybody  here  is 
aware  that  at  this  present  moment  there  is  hardly 
a  branch  of  trade  or  of  commerce  which  does  not 
depend,  more  or  less  directly,  upon  some  depart- 
ment or  other  of  physical  science,  which  does  not 
involve,  for  its  successful  pursuit,  reasoning  from 


TECHNICAL   EDUCATION  XVII 

scientific  data.  Our  machinery,  our  chemical  pro- 
cesses or  dyeworks,  and  a  thousand  operations 
which  it  is  not  necessary  to  mention,  are  all  di- 
rectly and  immediately  connected  with  science. 
You  have  to  look  among  your  workmen  and  fore- 
men for  persons  who  shall  intelligently  grasp  the 
modifications,  based  upon  science,  which  are  con- 
stantly being  introduced  into  these  industrial 
processes.  I  do  not  mean  that  you  want  profes- 
sional chemists,  or  physicists,  or  mathematicians,  or 
the  like,  but  you  want  people  sufficiently  familiar 
with  the  broad  principles  which  underlie  industrial 
operations  to  be  able  to  adapt  themselves  to  new 
conditions.  Such  qualifications  can  only  be  secured 
by  a  sort  of  scientific  instruction  which  occupies 
a  midway  place  between  those  primary  notions 
given  in  the  elementary  schools  and  those  more 
advanced  studies  which  would  be  carried  out  in 
the  technical  schools. 

You  are.  aware  that,  at  present,  a  very  large 
machinery  is  in  operation  for  the  purpose  of  giving 
this  instruction.  I  don't  refer  merely  to  such  work 
as  is  being  done  at  Owens  College  here,  for  exam- 
ple, or  at  other  local  colleges.  I  allude  to  the 
larger  operations  of  the  Science  and  Art  Depart- 
ment, with  which  I  have  been  connected  for  a  great 
many  years.  I  constantly  hear  a  great  many 
objections  raised  to  the  work  of  the  Science  and 
Art  Department.  If  you  will  allow  me  to  say  so,  my 
connection  with  that  department — which,  I  am 


XVII  TECHNICAL  EDUCATION  435 

happy  to  say,  remains,  and  which  I  am  very  proud 
of — is  purely  honorary ;  and,  if  it  appeared  to  me 
to  be  right  to  criticise  that  department  with  mer- 
ciless severity,  the  Lord  President,  if  he  were  in- 
clined to  resent  my  proceedings,  could  do  nothing 
more  than  dismiss  me.  Therefore  you  may  believe 
that  I  speak  with  absolute  impartiality.  My  im- 
pression is  this,  not  that  it  is  faultless,  nor  that  it 
has  not  various  defects,  nor  that  there  are  not 
sundry  lacunce,  which  want  filling  up ;  but  that,  if 
we  consider  the  conditions  under  which  the  depart- 
ment works,  we  shall  see  that  certain  defects  are 
inseparable  from  those  conditions.  People  talk  of 
the  want  of  flexibility  of  the  Department,  of  its 
being  bound  by  strict  rules.  Now,  will  any  man 
of  common  sense  who  has  had  anything  to  do  with 
the  administration  of  public  funds  or  knows  the 
humour  of  the  House  of  Commons  on  these  mat- 
ters— will  any  man  who  is  in  the  smallest  degree 
acquainted  with  the  practical  working  of  State 
departments  of  any  kind,  imagine  that  such  a 
department  could  be  other  than  bound  by  minutely 
defined  regulations  ?  Can  he  imagine  that  the 
work  of  the  department  should  go  on  fairly  and  in 
such  a  manner  as  to  be  free  from  just  criticism, 
unless  it  were  bound  by  certain  definite  and  fixed 
rules  ?  I  cannot  imagine  it. 

The  next  objection  of  importance  that  I  have 
heard  commonly  repeated  is  that  the  teaching  is 
too  theoretical,  that  there  is  insufficient  practical 
teaching.  I  venture  to  say  that  there  is  no  one 


436  TECHNICAL   EDUCATION 

who  has  taken  more  pains  to  insist  upon  the  com- 
parative uselessness  of  scientific  teaching  without 
practical  work  than  I  have ;  I  venture  to  say  that 
there  are  no  persons  who  are  more  cognisant  of 
these  defects  in  the  work  of  the  Science  and  Art 
Department  than  those  who  administer  it.  But 
those  who  talk  in  this  way  should  acquaint  them- 
selves with  the  fact  that  proper  practical  instruction 
is  a  matter  of  no  small  difficulty  in  the  present 
scarcity  of  properly  taught  teachers,  that  it  is  very 
costly,  and  that,  in  some  branches  of  science,  there 
are  other  difficulties  which  I  won't  allude  to.  But 
it  is  a  matter  of  fact  that,  wherever  it  has  been 
possible,  practical  teaching  has  been  introduced, 
and  has  been  made  an  essential  element  in  exam- 
ination ;  and  no  doubt  if  the  House  of  Commons 
would  grant  unlimited  means,  and  if  proper 
teachers  were  to  hand,  as  thick  as  blackberries, 
there  would  not  be  much  difficulty  in  organising  a 
complete  system  of  practical  instruction  and  exam- 
ination ancillary  to  the  present  science  classes. 
Those  who  quarrel  with  the  present  state  of  affairs 
would  be  better  advised  if,  instead  of  groaning  over 
the  shortcomings  of  the  present  system,  they  would 
pat  before  themselves  these  two  questions — Is  it 
possible  under  the  conditions  to  invent  any  better 
system  ?  Is  it  possible  under  the  conditions  to  en- 
large the  work  of  practical  teaching  and  practical 
examination  which  is  the  one  desire  of  those  who 
administer  the  department  ?  That  is  all  I  have  to 
Bay  upon  that  subject. 


xvn  TECHNICAL   EDUCATION  437 

Supposing  we  have  this  teaching  of  what  I  may 
call  intermediate  science,  what  we  want  next  is 
technical  instruction,  in  the  strict  sense  of  the 
word  technical ;  I  mean  instruction  in  that  kind 
of  knowledge  which  is  essential  to  the  successful 
prosecution  of  the  several  branches  of  trade  and 
industry.     Now,  the  best  way  of  obtaining  this 
end  is  a  matter  about  which  the  most  experienced 
persons  entertain  very  diverse  opinions.     I  do  not 
for  one  moment  pretend  to  dogmatise  about  it ;  I 
can  only  tell  you  what  the  opinion  is  that  I  have 
formed  from  hearing  the  views  of  those  who  aro 
certainly  best  qualified  to  judge,  from  those  who 
have  tested  the  various  methods  of  conveying  this 
instruction.      I  think  we  have  before   us  three 
possibilities.      We  have,  in  the  first  place,  trade 
schools — I  mean  schools  in  which  branches  of  trade 
are  taught.     We  have,  in  the  next  place,  schools 
attached  to  factories  for  the  purpose  of  instructing 
young  apprentices  and  others  who  go  there,  and 
who  aim  at  becoming  intelligent  workmen  and 
capable  foremen.     We  have,  lastly,  the  system  of 
day  classes  and  evening  classes.     With  regard  to 
the  first  there  is  this  objection,  that  they  can   be 
attended  only  by  those  who  are  not  obliged  to 
earn  their  bread,  and  consequently  that  they  will 
reach  only  a  very  small  fraction  of  the  population. 
Moreover,  the   expense  of  trade  schools  is  enor- 
mous, and  those  who  are  best  able  to  judge  assure 
me  that,  inasmuch  as  the  work  which  they  do  is 


438         TECHNICAL  EDUCATION 

not  done  under  conditions  of  pecuniary  success  or 
failure,  it  is  apt  to  be  too  amateurish  and  specula- 
tive, and  that  it  does  not  prepare  the  worker  for 
the  real  conditions  under  which  he  will  have  to 
carry  out  his  work.  In  any  case,  the  fact  that  the 
schools  are  very  expensive,  and  the  fact  that  they 
are  accessible  only  to  a  small  portion  of  the  popu- 
lation, seem  to  me  to  constitute  a  very  serious 
objection  to  them.  I  suppose  the  best  of  all 
possible  organisations  is  that  of  a  school  attached 
to  a  factory,  where  the  employer  has  an  interest  in 
seeing  that  the  instruction  given  is  of  a  thoroughly 
practical  kind,  and  where  the  pupils  pass  gradually 
by  successive  stages  to  the  position  of  actual 
workmen.  Schools  of  this  kind  exist  in  various 
parts  of  the  country,  but  it  is  obvious  that  they 
are  not  likely  to  be  reached  by  any  large  part  of 
the  population  ;  so  that  it  appears  to  me  we  are 
shut  up  practically  to  schools  accessible  to  those 
who  are  earning  their  bread,  and  in  such  cases  they 
must  be  essentially  evening  classes.  I  am  strongly 
of  opinion  that  classes  of  this  kind  do  an  immense 
amount  of  good ;  that  they  have  this  admirable 
quality,  that  they  involve  voluntary  attendance, 
take  no  man  out  of  his  position,  but  enable  any 
who  chooses,  to  make  the  best  of  the  position  he 
happens  to  occupy. 

Suppose  that  all  these  things  are  desirable,  what 
is  the  best  way  of  obtaining  them  ?  I  must  con- 
fess that  I  have  a  strong  prejudice  in  favour  of 


XVII  TECHNICAL   EDUCATION  439 

carrying  out  undertakings  of  this  kind,  which  at 
first,  at  any  rate,  must  be  to  a  great  extent  tenta- 
tive and  experimental,  by  private  effort.  I  don't 
believe  that  the  man  lives  at  this  present  time 
who  is  competent  to  organise  a  final  system  of 
technical  education.  I  believe  that  all  attempts 
made  in  that  direction  must  for  many  years  to  come 
be  experimental,  and  that  we  must  get  to  success 
through  a  series  of  blunders.  Now  that  work  is 
far  better  performed  by  private  enterprise  than  in 
any  other  way.  But  there  is  another  method 
which  I  think  is  permissible,  and  not  only  permis- 
sible but  highly  recommendable  in  this  case,  and 
that  is  the  method  of  allowing  the  locality  itself 
in  which  any  branch  of  industry  is  pursued  to  be 
its  own  judge  of  its  own  wants,  and  to  tax  itself 
under  certain  conditions  for  the  purpose  of  carrying 
out  any  scheme  of  technical  education  adapted  to 
its  needs.  I  am  aware  that  there  are  many  extreme 
theorists  of  the  individualist  school  who  hold  that 
all  this  is  very  wicked  and  very  wrong,  and  that 
by  leaving  things  to  themselves  they  will  get 
right.  Well,  my  experience  of  the  world  is  that 
things  left  to  themselves  don't  get  right.  I  be- 
lieve it  to  be  sound  doctrine  that  a  municipality — 
and  the  State  itself  for  that  matter — is  a  corpora- 
tion existing  for  the  benefit  of  its  members,  and 
that  here,  as  in  all  other  cases,  it  is  for  the  majority 
to  determine  that  which  is  for  the  good  of  the 
whole,  and  to  act  upon  that.  That  is  the  principle 


440  TECHNICAL   EDUCATION 

which  underlies  the  whole  theory  of  government 
in  this  country,  and  if  it  is  wrong  we  shall  have 
to  go  back  a  long  way.  But  you  may  ask  me, 
"  This  process  of  local  taxation  can  only  be  carried 
out  under  the  authority  of  an  Act  of  Parliament, 
and  do  you  propose  to  let  any  municipality  or  any 
local  authority  have  carte  llanche  in  these  matters  ; 
is  the  Legislature  to  allow  it  to  tax  the  whole 
body  of  its  members  to  any  extent  it  pleases  and 
for  any  purposes  it  pleases  ? "  I  should  reply, 
certainly  not. 

Let  me  point  out  to  you  that  at  this  present 
moment  it  passes  the  wit  of  man,  so  far  as  I  know, 
to  give  a  legal  definition  of  technical  education. 
If  you  expect  to  have  an  Act  of  Parliament  with  a 
definition  which  shall  include  all  that  ought  to  be 
included,  and  exclude  all  that  ought  to  be  excluded, 
I  think  you  will  have  to  wait  a  very  long  time.  I 
imagine  the  whole  matter  is  in  a  tentative  state. 
You  don't  know  what  you  will  be  called  upon  to 
do,  and  so  you  must  try  and  you  must  blunder. 
Under  these  circumstances  it  is  obvious  that  there 
are  two  alternatives.  One  of  these  is  to  give  a  free 
hand  to  each  locality.  Well,  it  is  within  my  know- 
ledge that  there  are  a  good  many  people  with 
wonderful,  strange,  and  wild  notions  as  to  what 
ought  to  be  done  in  technical  education,  and  it  is 
quite  possible  that  in  some  places,  and  especially 
in  small  places,  where  there  are  few  persons  who 
take  an  interest  in  these  things,  you  will  have 


XVII  TECHNICAL   EDUCATION  441 

very  remarkable  projects  put  forth,  and  in  that 
case  the  sole  court  of  appeal  for  those  taxpayers, 
who  did  not  approve  of  such  projects,  would  be  a 
court  of  law.  I  suppose  the  judges  would  have  to 
settle  what  is  technical  education.  That  would  not 
be  an  edifying  process,  I  think,  and  certainly  it 
would  be  a  very  costly  one.  The  other  alternative 
is  the  principle  adopted  in  the  bill  of  last  year  now 
abandoned.  I  don't  say  whether  the  bill  was  right 
or  wrong  in  detail.  I  am  dealing  now  only  with 
the  principle  of  the  bill,  which  appears  to  me  to 
have  been  very  often  misunderstood.  It  has  been 
said  that  it  gave  the  whole  of  technical  education 
into  the  hands  of  the  Science  and  Art  Department. 
It  appears  to  me  nothing  could  be  more  unfounded 
than  that  assertion.  All  I  understand  the  Govern- 
ment proposed  to  do  was  to  provide  some  authority 
who  should  have  power  to  say  in  case  any  scheme 
was  proposed,  "  Well,  this  comes  within  the  four 
corners  of  the  Act  of  Parliament,  work  it  as  you 
like  ; "  or  if  it  was  an  obviously  questionable  pro- 
ject, should  take  upon  itself  the  responsibility  of 
saying,  "  No,  that  is  not  what  the  Legislature 
intended;  amend  your  scheme."  There  was  no 
initiative,  no  control ;  there  was  simply  this  power 
of  giving  authority  to  decide  upon  the  meaning  of 
the  Act  of  Parliament  to  a  particular  department 
of  the  State,  whichever  it  might  be ;  and  it  seems 
to  me  that  that  is  a  very  much  simpler  and  better 
process  than  relegating  the  whole  question  to  the 


442  TECHNICAL  EDUCATION  xvn 

law  courts.  I  think  that  here,  or  anywhere  else, 
people  must  be  extremely  sanguine  if  they  suppose 
that  the  House  of  Commons  and  the  House  of 
Lords  will  ever  dream  of  giving  any  local  authority 
unlimited  power  to  tax  the  inhabitants  of  a  district 
for  any  object  it  pleases.  I  should  say  that  was 
not  in  the  range  of  practical  politics.  Well,  I  put 
that  before  you  as  a  matter  for  your  considera- 
tion. 

Another  very  important  point  in  this  connection 
is  the  question  of  the  supply  of  teachers.  I  should 
say  that  is  one  of  the  greatest  difficulties  which 
beset  the  whole  problem  before  us.  I  do  not 
wish  in  the  slightest  degree  to  criticise  the  exist- 
ing system  of  preparing  teachers  for  ordinary 
school  work.  I  have  nothing  to  say  about  it. 
But  what  I  do  wish  to  say,  and  what  I  trust  I 
may  impress  on  your  minds  firmly  is  this,  that  for 
the  purpose  of  obtaining  persons  competent  to 
teach  science  or  to  act  as  technical  teachers,  a 
different  system  must  be  adopted.  For  this  pur- 
pose a  man  must  know  what  he  is  about 
thoroughly,  and  be  able  to  deal  with  his  subject  as 
if  it  were  the  business  of  his  ordinary  life.  For 
this  purpose,  for  the  obtaining  of  teachers  of 
science  and  of  technical  classes,  the  system  of 
catching  a  boy  or  girl  young,  making  a  pupil 
teacher  of  him,  compelling  the  poor  little  mortal 
to  pour  from  his  little  bucket,  into  a  still  smaller 
bucket,  that  which  has  just  been  poured  into  it  out 


XVII  TECHNICAL   EDUCATION  448 

of  a  big  bucket  ;  and  passing  him  afterwards 
through  the  training  college,  where  his  life  is 
devoted  to  filling  the  bucket  from  the  pump  from 
morning  till  night,  without  time  for  thought  or 
reflection,  is  a  system  which  should  not  continue. 
Let  me  assure  you  that  it  will  not  do  for  us,  that 
you  had  better  give  the  attempt  up  than  try  that 
system.  I  remember  somewhere  reading  of  an 
interview  between  the  poet  Southey  and  a  good 
Quaker.  Southey  was  a  man  of  marvellous  powers 
of  work.  He  had  a  habit  of  dividing  his  time 
into  little  parts  each  of  which  was  fiilecl  up,  and 
he  told  the  Quaker  what  he  did  in  this  hour  and 
that,  and  so  on  through  the  day  until  far  into  the 
night.  The  Quaker  listened,  and  at  the  close  said, 
"  Well,  but,  friend  Southey,  when  dost  thee 
think  ?  "  The  system  which  I  am  now  adverting 
to  is  arraigned  and  condemned  by  putting  that 
question  to  it.  When  does  the  unhappy  pupil 
teacher,  or  over- drilled  student  of  a  training 
college,  find  any  time  to  think  ?  I  am  sure  if  I  were 
in  their  place  I  could  not.  I  repeat,  that  kind  of 
thing  will  not  do  for  science  teachers.  For  science 
teachers  must  have  knowledge,  and  knowledge  is 
not  to  be  acquired  on  these  terms.  The  power  of 
repetition  is,  but  that  is  not  knowledge.  The 
knowledge  which  is  absolutely  requisite  in  dealing 
with  young  children  is  the  knowledge  you 
possess,  as  you  would  know  your  own  business, 
and  which  you  can  just  turn  about  as  if  you 


444  TECHNICAL   EDUCATION  xvil 

were  explaining  to'  a  boy  a  matter  of  everyday 
life. 

So  far  as  science  teaching  and  technical  educa- 
tion are  concerned,  the  most  important  of  all 
things  is  to  provide  the  machinery  for  training 
proper  teachers.  The  Department  of  Science  and 
Art  has  been  at  that  work  for  years  and  years,  and 
though  unable  under  present  conditions  to  do  so 
much  as  could  be  wished,  it  has,  I  believe,  already 
begun  to  leaven  the  lump  to  a  very  considerable 
extent.  If  technical  education  is  to  be  carried  out 
on  the  scale  at  present  contemplated,  this  particu- 
lar necessity  must  be  specially  and  most  seriously 
provided  for.  And  there  is.  another  difficulty, 
namely,  that  when  you  have  got  your  science  or 
technical  teacher  it  may  not  be  easy  to  keep  him. 
You  have  educated  a  man — a  clever  fellow  very 
likely — on  the  understanding  that  he  is  to  be  a 
teacher.  But  the  business  of  teaching  is  not  a 
very  lucrative  and  not  a  very  attractive  one,  and 
an  able  man  who  has  had  a  good  training  is  under 
extreme  temptations  to  carry  his  knowledge  and 
his  skill  to  a  better  market,  in  which  case  you 
have  had  all  your  trouble  for  nothing.  It  has 
often  occurred  to  me  that  probably  nothing  would 
be  of  more  service  in  this  matter  than  the  creation 
of  a  number  of  not  very  large  bursaries  or  exhi- 
bitions, to  be  gained  by  persons  nominated  by  the 
authorities  of  the  various  science  colleges  and 
schools  of  the  country — persons  such  as  they. 


XVII  TECHNICAL   EDUCATION  445 

thought  to  be  well  qualified  for  the  teaching 
business — and  to  be  held  for  a  certain  term  of 
years,  during  which  the  holders  should  be  bound 
to  teach.  I  believe  that  some  measure  of  this  kind 
would  do  more  to  secure  a  good  supply  of  teachers 
than  anything  else.  Pray  note  that  I  do  not 
suggest  that  you  should  try  to  get  hold  of  good 
teachers  by  competitive  examination.  That  is  not 
the  best  way  of  getting  men  of  that  special  quali- 
fication. An  effectual  method  would  be  to  ask 
professors  and  teachers  of  any  institution  to  re- 
commend men  who,  to  their  own  knowledge,  are 
worthy  of  such  support,  and  are  likely  to  turn  it 
to  good  account. 

I  trust  I  am  not  detaining  you  too  long ;  but 
there  remains  yet  one  other  matter  which  I  think 
is  of  profound  importance,  perhaps  of  more  import- 
ance than  all  the  rest,  on  which  I  earnestly  beg 
to  be  permitted  to  say  some  few  words.  It  is  the 
need,  while  doing  all  these  things,  of  keeping  an 
eye, and  an  anxious  eye,  upon  those  measures  which 
are  necessary  for  the  preservation  of  that  stable 
and  sound  condition  of  the  w^hole  social 'organism 
which  is  the  essential  condition  of  real  progress, 
and  a  chief  end  of  all  education.  You  will  all  recol- 
lect that  some  time  ago  there  was  a  scandal  and  a 
great  outcry  about  certain  cutlasses  and  bayonets 
which  had  been  supplied  to  our  troops  and  sailors. 
These  warlike  implements  were  polished  as  bright 
as  rubbing  could  make  them  ;  they  were  very  well 


446  TECHNICAL   EDUCATION  xvn 

sharpened ;  they  looked  lovely.  But  when  they 
were  applied  to  the  test  of  the  work  of  war  they 
broke  and  they  bent,  and  proved  more  likely  to 
hurt  the  hand  of  him  that  used  them  than  to  do 
any  harm  to  the  enemy.  Let  me  apply  that 
analogy  to  the  effect  of  education,  which  is  a 
sharpening  and  polishing  of  the  mind.  You  may 
develop  the  intellectual  side  of  people  as  far  as 
you  like,  and  you  may  confer  upon  them  all  the 
skill  that  training  and  instruction  can  give ;  but, 
if  there  is  not,  underneath  all  that  outside  form 
and  superficial  polish,  the  firm  fibre  of  healthy 
manhood  and  earnest  desire  to  do  well,  your 
labour  is  absolutely  in  vain. 

Let  me  further  call  your  attention  to  the  fact 
that  the  terrible  battle  of  competition  between  the 
different  nations  of  the  world  is  no  transitory 
phenomenon,  and  does  not  depend  upon  this  or  that 
fluctuation  of  the  market,  or  upon  any  condition 
that  is  likely  to  pass  away.  It  is  the  inevitable 
result  of  that  which  takes  place  throughout  nature 
and  affects  man's  part  of  nature  as  much  as  any 
other — namely,  the  struggle  for  existence,  arising 
out  of  the  constant  tendency  of  all  creatures  in  the 
animated  world  to  multiply  indefinitely.  It  is  that, 
if  you  look  at  it,  which  is  at  the  bottom  of  all  the 
great  movements  of  history.  It  is  that  inherent 
tendency  of  the  social  organism  to  generate  the 
causes  of  its  own  destruction,  never  yet  counter- 
acted, which  has  been  at  the  bottom  of  half  tho 


XVII  TECHNICAL   EDUCATION  447 

catastrophes  which  have  ruined  States.  We  are 
at  present  in  the  swim  of  one  of  those  vast  move- 
ments in  which,  with  a  population  far  in  excess  of 
that  which  we  can  feed,  we  are  saved  from  a 
catastrophe,  through  the  impossibility  of  feeding 
them,  solely  by  our  possession  of  a  fair  share  of 
the  markets  of  the  world.  And  in  order  that 
that  fair  share  may  be  retained,  it  is  absolutely 
necessary  that  we  should  be  able  to  produce 
commodities  which  we  can  exchange  with  food- 
growing  people,  and  which  they  will  take,  rather 
than  those  of  our  rivals,  on  the  ground  of  their 
greater  cheapness  or  of  their  greater  excellence. 
That  is  the  whole  story.  And  our  course, 
let  me  say,  is  not  actuated  by  mere  motives 
of  ambition  or  by  mere  motives  of  greed.  Those 
doubtless  are  visible  enough  on  the  surface  of 
these  great  movements,  but  the  movements  them- 
selves have  far  deeper  sources.  If  there  were 
no  such  things  as  ambition  and  greed  in  this 
world,  the  struggle  for  existence  would  arise  from 
the  same  causes. 

Our  sole  chance  of  succeeding  in  a  competition, 
which  must  constantly  become  more  and  more 
severe,  is  that  our  people  shall  not  only  have  the 
knowledge  and  the  skill  which  are  required,  but 
that  they  shall  have  the  will  and  the  energy  and 
the  honesty,  without  which  neither  knowledge  nor 
skill  can  be  of  any  permanent  avail.  This  is  what 
T  mean  by  a  stable  social  condition,  because  any 


448  TECHNICAL   EDUCATION  XVII 

other  condition  than  this,  any  social  condition  in 
which  the  development  of  wealth  involves  the 
misery,  the  physical  weakness,  and  the  degrada- 
tion of  the  worker,  is  absolutely  and  infallibly 
doomed  to  collapse.  Your  bayonets  and  cutlasses 
will  break  under  your  hand,  and  there  will  go  ou 
accumulating  in  society  a  mass  of  hopeless, 
physically  incompetent,  and  morally  degraded 
people,  who  are,  as  it  were,  a  sort  of  dynamite 
which,  sooner  or  later,  when  its  accumulation  be- 
comes sufficient  and  its  tension  intolerable,  will 
burst  the  whole  fabric. 

I  am  quite  aware  that  the  problem  which  I  have 
put  before  you  and  which  you  know  as  much  about 
as  I  do,  and  a  great  deal  more  probably,  is  one 
extremely  difficult  to  solve.  I  am  fully  aware 
that  one  great  factor  in  industrial  success  is 
reasonable  cheapness  of  labour.  That  has  been 
pointed  out  over  and  over  again,  and  is  in  itself  an 
axiomatic  proposition.  And  it  seems  to  me  that 
of  all  the  social  questions  which  face  us  at  this 
present  time,  the  most  serious  is  how  to  steer  a 
clear  course  between  the  two  horns  of  an  obvious 
dilemma.  One  of  these  is  the  constant  tendency 
of  competition  to  lower  wages  beyond  a  point  at 
which  man  can  remain  man — below  a  point  at 
which  decency  and  cleanliness  and  order  and 
habits  of  morality  and  justice  can  reasonably  be 
expected  to  exist.  And  the  other  horn  of  the 
dilemma  is  the  difficulty  of  maintaining  wages 


TECHNICAL  EDUCATION  449 

above  this  point  consistently  with  success  in  in- 
dustrial competition.  I  have  not  the  remotest 
conception  how  this  problem  will  eventually  work 
itself-  out ;  but  of  this  I  am  perfectly  convinced, 
that  the  sole  course  compatible  with  safety  lies 
between  the  two  extremes  ;  between  the  Scylla  of 
successful  industrial  production  with  a  degraded 
population,  on  the  one  side,  and  the  Charybdis  of 
a  population,  maintained  in  a  reasonable  and 
decent  state,  with  failure  in  industrial  competition, 
on  the  other  side.  Having  this  strong  conviction, 
which,  indeed,  I  imagine  must  be  that  of  every 
person  who  has  ever  thought  seriously  about  these 
great  problems,  I  have  ventured  to  put  it  before 
you  in  this  bare  and  almost  cynical  fashion  because 
it  will  justify  the  strong  appeal,  which  I  make  to 
all  concerned  in  this  work  of  promoting  industrial 
education,  to  have  a  care,  at  the  same  time,  that 
the  conditions  of  industrial  life  remain  those  in 
which  the  physical  energies  of  the  population  may 
be  maintained  at  a  proper  level ;  in  which  their 
moral  state  may  be  cared  for  ;  in  which  there  may 
be  some  rays  of  hope  and  pleasure  in  their  lives ; 
and  in  which  the  sole  prospect  of  a  life  of  labour 
may  not  be  an  old  age  of  penury. 

These  are  the  chief  suggestions  I  have  to  oiTer 
to  you,  though  I  have  omitted  much  that  I  should 
like  to  have  said,  had  time  permitted.  It  may  be 
that  some  of  you  feel  inclined  to  look  upon  them 
as  the  Utopian  dreams  of  a  student.  If  there  be 


450  TECHNICAL   EDUCATION  xvil 

such,  let  rne  tell  you  that  there  are,  to  my 
knowledge,  manufacturing  towns  in  this  country, 
not  one-tenth  the  size,  or  boasting  one- hundredth 
part  of  the  wealth,  of  Manchester,  in  which  I  do 
not  say  that  the  programme  that  I  have  put  before 
you  is  completely  carried  out,  but  in  which,  at  any 
rate,  a  wise  and  intelligent  effort  had  been  made 
to  realise  it,  and  in  which  the  main  parts  of  the 
programme  are  in  course  of  being  worked  out. 
This  is  not  the  first  time  that  I  have  had  the 
privilege  and  pleasure  of  addressing  a  Manchester 
audience.  I  have  often  enough,  before  now,  thrown 
myself  with  entire  confidence  upon  the  hard- 
headed  intelligence  and  the  very  soft-hearted 
kindness  of  Manchester  people,  when  I  have  had 
a  difficult  and  complicated  scientific  argument  to 
put  before  them.  If,  after  the  considerations  which 
I  have  put  before  you — and  which,  pray  be  it 
understood,  I  by  no  means  claim  particularly  for 
myself,  for  I  presume  they  must  be  in  the  minds 
of  a  large  number  of  people  who  have  thought 
about  this  matter — if  it  be  that  these  ideas  com- 
mend themselves  to  your  mature  reflection,  then 
I  am  perfectly  certain  that  my  appeal  to  you  to 
carry  them  into  practice,  with  that  abundant 
energy  and  will  which  have  led  you  to  take  a  fore- 
most part  in  the  great  social  movements  of  our 
country  many  a  time  beforehand,  will  not  be  made 
in  vain.  I  therefore  confidently  appeal  to  you  to 
let  those  impulses  once  more  have  full  sway,  and 


XVII  TECHNICAL   EDUCATION  451 

not  to  rest  until  you  have  done  something  better 
and  greater  than  has  yet  been  done  in  this  coun- 
try in  the  direction  in  which  we  are  now  going. 
I  heartily  thank  you  for  the  attention  which  you 
have  been  kind  enough  to  bestow  upon  me.  The 
practice  of  public  speaking  is  one  I  must  soon 
think  of  leaving  off,  and  I  count  it  a  special  and 
peculiar  honour  to  have  had  the  opportunity  of 
speaking  to  you  on  this  subject  to-day. 


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